Dr Bryan Acheampong, a flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has attributed the party’s defeat in the 2024 general elections to challenges linked to both governance and its presidential candidature.

Speaking in an interview, Dr Acheampong said the election results exposed deeper weaknesses within the party beyond campaign strategy.

“We went to the 2024 elections, and the results that came out portrayed two things. We had a governance challenge, and we also had a candidate challenge,” he said.

According to the Abetifi MP, the governance challenge was evident in the disparity between the performance of parliamentary candidates and that of the party’s presidential candidate in many constituencies.

“And the governance challenge was seen from the performance of the parliamentary candidates’ level. And if you come to the presidential candidate, in most constituencies of this country, the parliamentary candidates did far better than the presidential candidate in the same constituencies, in the same elections, in the same political party,” he stated.

Dr Acheampong cited his own constituency as an example of the trend.

“In my case, I did better than my presidential candidate,” he said in an interview with Channel One TV.

He further referenced the Okaikwei South constituency, where the party’s parliamentary candidate, Dakoa Newman, lost by about 5,000 votes, while the presidential candidate suffered a wider defeat.

“In Okaikwei South, the parliamentary candidate lost by about 5,000 votes, while the presidential candidate lost by roughly 11,000 votes,” he noted.

According to him, the pattern was replicated across the country and marked an unprecedented development in Ghana’s electoral history.

“And that almost cuts across the whole country. If you put all the parliamentary results together, it beat the presidential candidate by almost 350,000 votes. This has never happened in the country before,” he said.

The NPP lost the 2024 presidential election to former President John Dramani Mahama, returning the party to opposition.