Former Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has said the overly monetisation of structures within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led to their defeat in the 2024 elections.
He says the party has been commercialised and turned into “money-making machine” which has infuriated the grassroots, leading to the apathy that dragged the party into opposition.
The former legislator for Suame in the Ashanti region, commenting on the discoveries of a fact-finding report on the party’s performance in the Ashanti region said party faithful have raised concerns about how monetisation has taken centre stage in the party’s internal elections.
“Observations coming from all the constituencies in Ashanti, 47 of them, and the people who were sent out interviewed-not only party officers (card-bearing party officers) but they went out there and spoke to supporters, sympathisers of the party and almost everybody that they spoke to with one voice indicated that we need to have a second look at the delegate system in the party,” he disclosed on JoyFM Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
“The process has become overly monetised, and that has already led to apathy in the party. It needs a complete overhaul,” he added.
The former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said the report recommended that voting rights for leadership positions in the party should be extended to all card-bearing members rather than limiting it to a selected few.
“Some of them say that we should go further downstream and enable all NPP members to be part of the voting system in the party whether at the polling station level, area, constituency, regional or national.
“We should open it to everybody. It includes the parliamentary candidates and also the presidential candidates,” he explained.
He said the little incentives which were hitherto provided for delegates during voting has now been transformed into full-blown vote-buying which is not auguring well for the party’s integrity.
“People think that what we are doing now is not serving the interest of the party, it’s causing divisions, it’s causing polarisation and people are taking undue advantage, turning the party structures into a money-making machine which is not good for the image of the party,” he pointed out.
The former Member of Parliament for Suame led a fact-finding committee to ascertain the major contributions to the party’s performance in the last elections, particularly from the Ashanti region which is its stronghold.
The report identified multiple factors that contributed to the party’s poor performance, notably the leadership style of former President Nana Akufo-Addo, which was widely perceived as rigid, overly centralised, and dominated by close family members.
Concerns were also raised about the mode of selecting the party’s presidential, parliamentary, national, and regional executives which the report detailed as being monetised, leading to the massive apathy that led to the party’s defeat.
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