The outcome of 2024 general election has taught us useful lessons in so many ways,and it is about time we use this period to reflect, reform, rebuild, rebrand, restrategize, and transform the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2028 general election and beyond.
So far, the Electoral Commission of Ghana has declared the results of 275 out of the 276 Constituencies with Mr John Mahama having a commanding lead of 1,714,179 votes difference between him and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Based on the 275 out of 276 Constituencies, John Mahama had 6,591,179 votes representing 56.42%, and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia had 4, 877,611 votes representing 41.75%.
Consequentially, if the votes of the outstanding Constituency, Ablekuma North with 121,269 votes are added, definitely the percentile differential would change with John Mahama attaining 57% and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia dropping to 38-40%. This would be the worst result ever for an incumbent government since 1992.
In the 2000 Presidential election, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, the first ever sitting Vice-President to contest general election to succeed his boss Rawlings, lost the election with 2, 895, 575 votes (44.54% in the first round) and 2,750,124 votes (43.10% in the second round).
Mr. John Kufuor won the first round and second round respectively with 3,131,739 votes(48.17%) and 3,631,263 votes(56.90%). Therefore, the percentile differential between Mr John Kufuor and Prof. Atta Mills after the second round of the 2000 presidential election was 881,139 votes, that is, Prof. Atta Mills and the ruling NDC lost the 2000 presidential election with a gap of 881,139 votes.
In the 2008 general election, Nana Akufo-Addo respectively had 4, 159,439 votes(49.13%) and 4, 480, 446(49.77%) in the first and second rounds while John Atta Mills respectively had 4,056,634(47.92%) and 4,521,032(50.23%) in the first and second rounds.
The percentile differential between Prof. Atta Mills and Nana Akufo-Addo after the run-off in the 2008 presidential election was 40, 586 votes, that is, Nana Akufo-Addo and the ruling NPP lost the 2008 presidential election with a gap of 40,586 votes.
In the 2016 presidential election, John Mahama had 4, 771, 188 votes(44.4%), and Nana Akufo-Addo had 5,755,758 votes(53.83%). That is, John Mahama and the ruling NDC lost the 2016 presidential election with a gap of 984,570 votes.
Henceforth, moving into the 2028 general election, the NPP would require Redirection and a very serious reforms such as:
1. Scrapping the Special Delegates Conference
The Special Delegates Conference (Super Delegates) has completely outlived its usefulness. It has become a special purpose vehicle for corruption, bribery, intimidations, manipulation, ‘mafiarism’, cronyism, misrepresentation of delegates album, false representation of prevailing reality on the ground, and a cashcow for some executives of the Party.
The Special Delegates Conference defeat the purpose of participatory democracy and meritocracy, creating a bad political branding image for the New Patriotic Party.
The solution to preventing so many people from participating in the presidential primary can be achieved through reviewing the vetting process as well as tightening the criteria for approving contestants to vie for the Flagbearership position.
2. Expanding the Electoral College of NPP
Furtherance to the scrapping of the Special Delegates Conference, there is the urgent need to expand the NPP Electoral College to cover the following categories of members of the Party with voting rights to elect the Party’s Flagbearer aimed at reducing apathy & rejections, promoting inclusiveness & a sense of collective ownership of the party as well as strengthening participatory democracy within the NPP:
(a). All Former Members of Parliament who are in good standing and still loyal to the Party.
(b). All Former Government Appointees including Ministers/Deputy Ministers, CEOs/MDs/DGs/Exec. Secretaries, MMDCEs and Ambassadors/High Commissioners who are cardbearing members of the Party as well as in good standing and still loyal to the Party.
(c). All Former Party’s Executives(both Elected & Appointed) from the Polling Station, Constituency, Regional, National and external levels who are in good standing and still loyal to the Party.
It is important to state that, NPP should NOT repeat mistakes of the NDC post 2016 general election of including all card bearing members to be part of the Electoral College. Since such approach wasn’t successful with the NDC it would definitely not be successful with the NPP too.
Including all card bearing members to be part of Electoral College would become a threat to the integrity and credibility of the Delegates Album.
3. Restructuring and Alignment of the National Campaign Team
There is no doubt that, the 2024 National Campaign Team was highly ineffective, and lacking coherence. The National Campaign Team was at completely VARIANCE with Nana Akufo-Addo’s Government, and the headquarters of the New Patriotic Party, thereby taking every credit for the achievements of Akufo-Addo’s Government but at the same time putting all the blames on Nana Akufo-Addo and his family members for the failures of the Government. Such strategy was completely NEOPHYTIC.
The best national presidential campaigns ever managed by the NPP were 2000, 2008 and 2016. During the aforementioned era of campaigning, there was a Synergy and mouth-of-oneness between the Presidential campaign and the Party.
… Signed…
Razak Kojo Opoku(PhD)
Founding President
UP Tradition Institute