A feature by Amb Edward Boateng
Accra, Aug. 27, GNA – As the New Patriotic Party (NPP) moves towards its National Delegates Conference and national executive elections on October 3, 2026, the contest has entered a decisive stage.
Fifty aspirants have so far picked nomination forms for the various national positions, including five seeking to become National Chairman. The incumbent National Chairman, Stephen Ayesu Ntim, is not seeking re-election, guaranteeing a change at the top of the party.
These developments make the forthcoming elections much more than a routine contest for party positions. They represent an important opportunity for the NPP to decide what kind of organisation it wants to become after the heavy electoral defeat of 2024 and what kind of leadership is required to make it competitive again in 2028.
The fundamental question confronting delegates is simple: Who can help rebuild the party, reconnect it with the electorate and restore public confidence in the NPP?
The answer should be guided not principally by familiarity, factional considerations or personal relationships, but by competence, credibility, integrity, strategic foresight, organisational capacity and the ability to work collectively in the long-term interest of the party.
Learning from 2024
The NPP cannot afford to examine its 2024 defeat solely through the narrow lens of personalities.
The scale of the setback demands a deeper examination of the organisational, economic, political and communication factors that contributed to it. What went wrong?
More than two million voters who supported the NPP in 2020 did not vote for the party’s presidential candidate in 2024. The party also suffered a dramatic reduction in its parliamentary representation.
Recovering those voters must therefore be at the centre of everything the NPP does between now and 2028.
Many may not simply have changed their political preferences overnight. Some became disappointed, others frustrated, and many simply stayed away. Concerns about the economy, governance, internal party conduct and perceptions about accountability should not be dismissed simply because the NPP is now in opposition.
The party must listen to them.
Its structures, internal cohesion, communication, grassroots mobilisation, discipline and relationship with the electorate all require careful examination.
Such reflection should not become an exercise in assigning blame or reopening old wounds. The rancour surrounding the presidential contest demonstrated how easily internal competition can deepen divisions. Fortunately, subsequent internal elections and processes have generally been calmer.
The objective now should be renewal, reconciliation and rebuilding rather than recrimination.
Performance must matter
There is nothing inherently wrong with retaining experienced party officers. Experience provides institutional knowledge and continuity. But experience becomes valuable only when accompanied by demonstrable results, adaptability and the capacity to respond to changing political circumstances.
Every candidate seeking election or re-election should therefore be prepared to answer some basic questions.
What have you achieved?
What have you learnt from 2024? What would you do differently? How will you rebuild the grassroots? And, most importantly, how will your election help the NPP regain the confidence of the millions of voters it lost?
These questions should apply equally to those seeking continuity and those advocating change.
Familiarity within the party cannot, by itself, constitute evidence of leadership capacity.
The case for change must also be credible
Those presenting themselves as alternatives must equally make a compelling case.
Changing personalities without changing attitudes, systems and approaches will not necessarily produce a different outcome.
The next leadership must demonstrate a practical understanding of the challenges confronting the party and present credible strategies for addressing them.
Rebuilding grassroots structures, restoring organisational discipline, meaningfully engaging young people, improving communication, embracing technology and data, strengthening fundraising and reconnecting with disillusioned supporters must be central to that agenda.
The NPP must particularly understand the aspirations of Millennials and Gen Z voters, whose political expectations are increasingly shaped by jobs, economic opportunity, technology, accountability and results rather than historical party loyalties.
Modern elections are increasingly contests of data, organisation, communication, mobilisation and trust. The party cannot approach 2028 using yesterday’s political machinery.
Opposition is not enough
There is another lesson the NPP must quickly learn.
Being in opposition does not automatically make a party attractive again.
The government will inevitably make mistakes, and where it does, the NPP must expose those failures firmly, factually and responsibly. But an opposition strategy based on criticising everything the government does risks becoming counterproductive.
The party must also recognise the factors that influenced voters’ decision in 2024.
It must therefore earn the moral authority to criticise by demonstrating that it has listened, reflected and changed.
Sometimes the most effective opposition strategy is to allow the government’s own contradictions and mistakes to speak for themselves while presenting a credible alternative.
The NPP’s communication must therefore become more measured, strategic and emotionally intelligent. It must appeal not only to committed party supporters but also to the hearts and minds of those Ghanaians who walked away from the party in 2024.
The objective cannot simply be to make the government unpopular. It must be to make the NPP credible again.
Learning from political competition
Political parties do not operate in isolation, and there is value in studying how successful competitors organise themselves.
The NPP should objectively examine how other political organisations build and maintain grassroots structures, enforce message discipline, mobilise supporters and sustain long-term electoral strategies.
This does not mean imitation.
It means having the humility to recognise effective political organisation wherever it exists and adapting useful lessons to the NPP’s own traditions and values.
Elections are not won by individual popularity alone. They require structures, discipline, coordination, resources, data and sustained engagement with voters.
A team, not a collection of individuals
The NPP requires a national leadership team, not merely individuals occupying national positions.
Modern political organisation requires competence across grassroots mobilisation, communications, fundraising, policy development, youth and women’s engagement, technology, data analytics, research, strategic planning and execution.
No single leader possesses all these capabilities.
The strength of the next national executive will therefore depend on whether its members complement one another and can work together around a common political objective.
Strong personalities who cannot collaborate can weaken an organisation. A disciplined and cohesive team, on the other hand, can transform diverse talents into formidable political strength.
The next national leadership must also be capable of working effectively with the party’s flagbearer, parliamentary leadership, regional and constituency structures and the wider party family.
Competing centres of authority, public disagreements and indiscipline will only remind voters of the divisions that have weakened the party.
Money must not determine leadership
The party must also confront another feature of contemporary internal politics: the growing influence of money in internal elections.
Campaigning across the country inevitably requires resources. But when access to leadership becomes determined primarily by who can spend the most money on delegates, political parties risk excluding competent people and weakening confidence in the internal electoral process.
That is unhealthy for both party and country.
Delegates therefore carry a responsibility that extends beyond individual relationships or immediate benefits.
Their vote should be an investment in the future of the NPP.
Beyond familiarity and faction
Loyalty matters in every political organisation, but loyalty should complement rather than replace competence.
Likewise, friendship, factional alignment, familiarity and internal popularity should not outweigh integrity, capacity and the ability to deliver results.
The October elections must not become an extension of previous internal contests.
Once national officers are elected, they must see themselves as officers of the entire NPP, not representatives of presidential candidates, factions or “political godfathers”.
The party cannot rebuild itself if every internal election creates permanent winners and losers.
Choosing for 2028
The October 3 elections offer the NPP an important opportunity to begin a genuine phase of organisational renewal.
Those seeking to retain their positions should demonstrate what they have achieved and what they intend to improve.
Those seeking change must explain why their approach offers a more credible path towards renewal.
The responsibility ultimately rests with the delegates.
They must look beyond slogans, friendships, financial considerations and factional interests and ask which combination of candidates offers the competence, character, integrity and collective capacity required to rebuild the party.
The NPP’s challenge going into 2028 is not simply to defeat the NDC
It is first to regain the trust of Ghanaians who once voted for the NPP but concluded in 2024 that the party no longer deserved their support.
That trust cannot be demanded. It must be earned again.
The central question on October 3 should therefore not be who is most familiar, most popular, most connected or best resourced.
It should be: Who is best equipped to help build a stronger, more united, disciplined, modern and electorally competitive NPP capable of reconnecting with Ghanaians and presenting a credible alternative government in 2028?
If delegates approach the election in that spirit, October 3 can become more than another internal political contest.
It can mark the beginning of the NPP’s journey from defeat, through reflection and renewal, towards rebuilding the confidence necessary to compete seriously for the mandate of Ghanaians in 2028.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey