Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, also known as NAPO, the running mate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 general election, has identified internal party challenges as the primary reason for the NPP’s recent electoral defeat.
The NPP fell short in its bid for a third consecutive term in the December 7, 2024, general election, with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) securing a decisive victory, paving the way for John Mahama’s return to the presidency.
In an interview with Umaru Sanda, NAPO pointed to long-standing governance issues within the party as a significant factor that hampered its performance at the polls.
He argued that the loss was not solely attributable to economic challenges but was more deeply rooted in unresolved internal conflicts and organisational flaws within the NPP.
NAPO emphasized that these governance issues have been a recurring problem for the party, citing past experiences where the NPP had to learn valuable lessons from its mistakes.
“MPs were begging people to go and vote, but they said they were not going to vote. That is not about economic mismanagement, it is about a deep-seated problem the party hasn’t addressed.
“You can’t imagine yourself to be a master of everything at every time. There are certain events that you may not be able to do anything about and it will hit you. It is not just the NPP that has suffered that.
“In 1992, we had zero representation in parliament. The country and the party learned. Because in the said year, the presidential and parliamentary elections when the party lost, they wrote a stolen verdict and they decided that they were going to boycott parliament.
“It was a party decision. Subsequently, that same party met and said they shouldn’t have boycotted parliament. They said it was better for us to go with the few seats we won than to boycott. So, the party changed, and the country changed,” he added.
