Dr. Bryan Abbey Acheampong, a flagbearer aspirant of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is urging delegates to prioritise performance rather than branding or political sentiment in making a choice for the party.
He says the party cannot repackage the former Vice President and 2024 flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as its next presidential candidate considering how poor he performed at the last elections.
According to him, Dr. Bawumia is “the most marketed” candidate amongst the five aspirants since 2008, having served eight years each as Vice President and running mate, but could only manage 41% as flagbearer.
“Everything that you have ends at 41%. Sixteen years that we marketed him, he had 41%,” he said on Accra-based JoyNews on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.
Dr. Acheampong explained that Dr. Bawumia’s performance at the last polls was nothing to write home about, when compared to Akufo-Addo’s performance after being marketed for just eight months.
“We marketed Akufo-Addo for eight months; he had 49.7%,” he said, insisting that the comparison exposes a deeper problem. “So everything that you are saying, you are making his situation worse,” he noted.
He stated how the party, for the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic, failed to win a single constituency in seven regions, signalling how appalling the performance was.
“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.”
He added that although Dr. Bawumia was expected to win the northern part of the country for the party when he was being presented, he rather did otherwise, with five of the seven regions the NPP couldn’t win a single constituency coming from the northern sector.
“When we were supporting him in 2023, one of the beliefs was that if we present him, he would hold the votes from the northern part of Ghana for us,” he said. He said the data showed otherwise.
“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.
The former Minister of Agriculture cited further losses, stating “we could not win one western region, 17 constituencies, we won one presidential.”
In the Central region for instance, he noted that the party could secure only two wins at the presidential polls in the 23 constituencies, same as the Greater Accra region where the party got only two out of 34 constituencies.
He stated that the upcoming primary is going to be a verdict by the delegates on these performances.
“Those attributes and the results of the elections are the ones that the delegates are passing a verdict on,” he added.
He further urged the party members, especially the delegates, to accept reality and vote out Dr. Bawumia come January 31, 2026.
“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.
