Dr Bryan Acheampong, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, has cautioned the party that they cannot repeat Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as the flagbearer of the party ahead of the 2028 elections.
The Abetifi lawmaker detailed that the results in the 2024 elections show that maintaining the same candidate will not change the NPP’s fortunes.
Dr Acheampong stressed that the results of the 2024 elections should inform the party’s decisions ahead of 2028.
Speaking on Face to Face on Channel One TV on Tuesday, December 23, Dr Acheampong stated, “If you go into the 2024 elections results, you cannot repeat a candidate. Not much will change”
He, however, noted that Ghanaians will forgive the NPP for its wrongs in the past, just like they forgave the NDC, but the NPP have a candidate challenge the party cannot overcome.
“Ghanaians will forgive our party [NPP] for a lot of the wrongs it did in the past, because they forgave the NDC. It will forgive NPP. But we have a candidate challenge that we may not be able to surmount. Leadership inspires hope,” he stated.
In a separate interview, Dr Bryan Acheampong ripped Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s performance in the 2024 elections into shreds.
According to Bryan Acheampong, Dr Bawumia was marketed by the NPP for sixteen years but failed in the market with only securing 41 per cent in the 2024 election.
Dr Bryan Acheampong further highlighted that Dr Bawumia has reached his electoral ceiling, which is 41 per cent.
He described Dr Bawumia as the most marketed NPP candidate, highlighting that he had spent eight years as Vice President and eight years as running mate.
Speaking on PM Express on Tuesday, Dr Acheampong detailed, “Everything that you have ends at 41%. In the sixteen years that we marketed him, he had 41%. We marketed Akufo-Addo for eight months; he had 49.7%,”
He added that the 2024 election results were devastating, with the NPP failing to win a single constituency in seven regions during the 2024 presidential election.
Dr Bryan Acheampong added, “After all the attributes that you just highlighted, in seven regions, we could not win a single constituency,” he said. He listed Volta, Oti, Upper East, Upper West, Savannah and Bono East. He said, “In the presidential, we could not win one constituency in these regions.”
“When we were supporting him in 2023, one of the beliefs was that if we presented him, he would hold the votes from the northern part of Ghana for us. Five of the regions that we did not win a single constituency, seven, five of them are from the northern half of Ghana,” he said.
Dr Acheampong cited further losses. “We could not win one western region, 17 constituencies, we won one presidential. Those attributes and the results of the elections are the ones that the delegates are passing a verdict on”.
“If we market you for 16 years, and you come out with 41% and we market Akufo-Addo for eight months, and he gets 49.7% then there’s a difference,” he said.
Dr Acheampong explained that “the difference is that the marketing did not yield the sales results,” adding that “people are going to change their product.”
“You’re mixing logic with politics and performance,” he said. He said history is often misunderstood. “It is only logic which will suggest that Adu Boahen went once, Busia went once and won; Kufuor went twice and won; Akufo-Addo went three times and won, and logically, it means that Dr Bawumia will go four times,” he said.