New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, Dr Bryan Acheampong, has argued that the party’s 2024 electoral performance shows the urgent need for a presidential candidate who can unify the base and translate parliamentary strength into presidential votes.

Addressing party supporters during a campaign visit to the Ningo-Prampram constituency on Friday, with just two weeks to the NPP’s January 31 presidential primaries, Dr Acheampong pointed to voting patterns from the 2024 elections as evidence of a growing disconnect between the party’s parliamentary and presidential results.

According to him, NPP parliamentary candidates outperformed the party’s presidential candidate by wide margins in several regions, raising concerns about voter confidence at the top of the ticket.

“In many parts of the country, our parliamentary candidates performed significantly better than our presidential candidate,” he said.

“Across constituencies, the difference was about 30,000 votes. In the Upper East Region alone, the gap was close to 40,000 votes.”

Dr Acheampong noted that the situation was particularly striking in the Savannah Region, where all seven constituencies recorded stronger parliamentary results for the NPP than presidential votes.

“If you take the seven constituencies in the Savannah Region together, our parliamentary candidates beat our presidential candidate by about 17,000 votes,” he stated.

He cited Damongo as a specific example, referencing the performance of Samuel Abu Jinapor, the NPP parliamentary candidate for the area.

“In Damongo, Abu Jinapor beat our presidential candidate by about 4,000 votes,” Dr Acheampong said.

“That means 4,000 people voted for the NPP parliamentary candidate, but when it came to our presidential candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia, they walked away.”

Dr Acheampong argued that these figures underscore the need for a presidential candidate who can consolidate the party’s grassroots support and convert parliamentary loyalty into votes at the presidential level.

The NPP will elect its presidential candidate on January 31, as the party prepares for the 2028 general elections.