New Patriotic Party flagbearer aspirant and presidential hopeful Dr Bryan Acheampong has mounted a sharp critique of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s electoral record, arguing that the former Vice President’s performance weakens rather than strengthens his case to lead the party.
Speaking on PM Express, Dr Acheampong said Dr Bawumia benefitted from unprecedented visibility within the NPP but failed to translate that exposure into electoral success. “Everything that you have ends at 41%,” he said, describing Dr Bawumia as “the most marketed” candidate the party has produced. He pointed out that Dr Bawumia spent eight years as running mate and another eight years as Vice President. “Sixteen years that we marketed him, he had 41%,” he stated.
Dr Acheampong contrasted that with the party’s earlier experience with former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. “We marketed Akufo-Addo for eight months; he had 49.7%,” he said, adding that such comparisons do not help Dr Bawumia’s argument. “So everything that you are saying, you are making his situation worse.”
He further criticised the party’s electoral showing under Dr Bawumia’s candidacy, saying it failed to make inroads in several regions. “He couldn’t get seven regions of this country,” he said, listing Volta, Oti, Upper East, Upper West, Savannah and Bono East. “We could not win one constituency in these regions,” he stressed.
According to Dr Acheampong, expectations within the party in 2023 were that Dr Bawumia would at least secure strong support from the northern parts of the country. “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,” he said.
He cited similar setbacks in other traditional battlegrounds. In the Central Region, he noted, “23 constituencies, we won two presidential,” while in Greater Accra, the outcome was equally poor. “34 constituencies in Greater Accra, presidential, we got two,” he said.
Dr Acheampong concluded that these results are central to the current internal debate within the NPP. “Those attributes and the results of the elections are the ones that the delegates are passing a verdict on,” he said.
