Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, a prominent figure and presidential hopeful within the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has fiercely criticised the party’s decision to elect a flagbearer before choosing new national and regional executives.
According to him, this top-down strategy defies logic, undermines the party’s grassroots strength, and reflects either ignorance or selfish ambition among party leadership.
Speaking in an interview on Sompa FM, Agyarko questioned the party’s sudden shift from a bottom-up to a top-down electoral strategy, warning that such a move could harm its 2028 electoral prospects.
“What has caused for them to change the bottom-top approach to top-bottom approach? Who builds a house starting from the roof before constructing the foundation?” he asked.
“It’s either some people don’t understand the politics or are just being selfish and greedy. Why will you elect a flagbearer before national and regional executives? It is total nonsense!”
He explained that in a country like Ghana, with nearly 89,000 human settlements, a lone presidential candidate cannot possibly reach every community within a campaign period.
“There are 88,917 human settlements in Ghana, and so if you elect a flagbearer and expect them to campaign in all these communities, it will take them 10 years to achieve that,” Agyarko argued.
“But if you have 210,000 executives from polling stations, they can successfully campaign in these communities within a week if two executives are assigned to each community.”
For Agyarko, the grassroots hold the key to electoral victory.
“First and foremost, we sell the party to the people before the flagbearer even comes in. There is no way one person can win an election for any political party—that is why we begin from the polling stations.”
