United Party (UP) leader Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen says the limited time available before the 2024 general election influenced his decision to contest the presidential race as an independent candidate rather than establish a fully-fledged political party.

Speaking in an interview with Joy Prime’s Nathaniel Attoh, Mr Kyerematen said that, having decided to leave the New Patriotic Party (NPP) when preparations for the elections were already well underway, he considered it impractical to build a new political party within the available timeframe.

He explained that the Movement for Change was therefore created as the political vehicle for his independent presidential bid.

“I decided strategically that the time was too short for me to set up a full party,” he said.

According to him, Ghana’s political system provided two practical routes for his presidential ambition at the time: contesting as the candidate of a political party or running independently while leading a political organisation.

He said the Movement for Change offered a way to pursue his campaign without having to complete the lengthy process of establishing a conventional political party before the election.

“I was preaching change, and if I couldn’t form a party and I had a political organisation, there was no better brand that I could give to it as the Movement for Change,” he said.

Mr Kyerematen announced his resignation from the NPP in September 2023 and subsequently declared his intention to contest the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate under the Movement for Change. At the time, he unveiled the monarch butterfly, known in Akan as Afrafranto, as the movement’s symbol and adopted the slogan “Ghana Will Rise Again”.

Reflecting on the campaign, Mr Kyerematen said the decision to contest independently also required him to directly test his support among voters, rather than rely on the established structures of Ghana’s two dominant political parties.

He argued that established parties such as the NPP and National Democratic Congress (NDC) have longstanding support bases that give them a guaranteed level of electoral backing, whereas an independent candidate has to actively convince voters to embrace a new political alternative.

“The two parties are lucky because Ghanaians have no option so whether they campaign or not, at least, they will get their core votes,” he said.

“But for a new individual or in my case an independent candidate, the only way is to go out on the street and test whether the people will hoot at you or they will hail you.”

Mr Kyerematen said he consequently took his campaign directly to communities, particularly in Accra and Kumasi, to assess the response to his candidacy.

He described the reception during those engagements as “phenomenal”, saying the level of energy generated by the campaign over approximately six months was significant.

“Looking back on it, within a matter of six months, the amount of energy that was unleashed in the campaign is one of the things that has not been witnessed before,” he said.

In his September 2023 declaration, he said the Movement for Change was intended to challenge Ghana’s established two-party political system and promote an alternative centred on political and economic transformation.

He went on to contest the December 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate. Electoral Commission records confirm that he was listed on the presidential ballot as Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen.