The Volta Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Makafui Kofi Woanyah, has advised the media to guard against tribal politics heading into the 2024 general elections.

He urged media practitioners to use their mediums to enlighten the citizenry on the provisions of the constitution about the formation of political parties.

This he believes will address the misconceptions that an ethnic group is bound to affiliate to a particular political party.

“The Constitution of Ghana is clear on how a party is formed. Parties are formed based on membership across the entire country.

"Registration has to be done in the various constituencies”, he said when speaking at an NPP-organised media soiree in Ho.

Mr Woanyah described as unfortunate, attempts by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to win the sympathy of electorates in his jurisdiction by preaching ethnic allegiance.

He said, “The NDC cannot say that Voltarians should compulsorily be NDC, no. This is the education that we have to give to them.

"The only thing that will make you vote for somebody is the development that the person is bringing to you. It is the report that the person is bringing from parliament back to you.”

He said if constituents start to vote based on performance, their representatives in parliament would sit up and deliver as expected of them.

“If that is the way to go, we will see that a lot of the MPs will not sit in Parliament and think that once they can win their primaries in the Volta Region, they are good to go.

"And I think that is the misconception that has been driven into the minds of the people in the Volta Region that, the NDC is for them, but that shouldn't be the case”, Mr. Woanyah said.

He shot down claims that the NPP is an Akan political party.

He stated that the election of Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as Presidential Candidate indicates that the governing party has a multi-ethnic support base.

Mr Woanyah explained that the NPP focuses on the competence of candidates and their vision for the progress of the party and not their ethnicity.

He, therefore, extended an invitation to the people of the Volta Region to embrace the policies and ideologies of the governing NPP which takes a significant interest in their well-being and development.

“Mahama even asserted in respect of that, that NPP will never bring a northerner as a flag bearer, and we have done that. So, on the whole, the NPP is not an Akan party. NPP is Ghana’s party.

"Every ethnic group is welcome to our party. And so, this tells me that tomorrow I can also stand and contest as a flag bearer and win”, he stressed.

Mr Woanyah is optimistic that the voting pattern of the governing party in the Volta Region will increase in the 2024 December general elections, which would play a major in helping to “break the 8”.

He said the NPP could wrestle more parliamentary seats from the NDC while maintaining the Hohoe seat, won by John Peter Amewu in 2020.