The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says its decision to elect Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as flagbearer well ahead of the 2028 elections has helped stabilise its internal reorganisation.

Newly elected Third Vice Chairperson of the party, Nana Akomea, says the early selection has reduced tensions that often accompany prolonged flagbearer contests.

He said the party has effectively “secured for ourselves the blessing of time” by completing the flagbearer contest early.

“We secured for ourselves the blessing of time by doing this reorganisation, selecting the flagbearer 223 years ahead of the elections, and you would see the wisdom in that action has cascaded.”

According to Nana Akomea, the benefit was evident during the NPP’s recent national executive elections.

“Look at this election that we did, the national executive. There was not much acrimony. You didn’t have candidates speaking against each other. Everybody just presented their case.”

He said the early selection also helped prevent some of the tensions that can arise when multiple candidates compete for the party’s top position.

“The party is composed because we have a leader who serves as the centre of gravity of the party, and we’ve given that blessing to ourselves by the early election of the leader.”

Nana Akomea said the flagbearership contest can create tension throughout the party when it remains unresolved.

“The flagbearership contest, if it’s pending, the tension feeds through the system, and it makes the system completely chaotic, because every flagbearer is going to have people at polling station level contesting.”

He added that the NPP has now moved beyond that stage.

“Now there isn’t any emotion because we’ve already settled that high price. So we’ve composed ourselves.”

With the party’s flagbearership settled, Nana Akomea said the NPP can now focus on selecting parliamentary candidates, particularly in constituencies without sitting MPs.

“There are a lot more orphan constituencies. You don’t want to leave it free for all.”

He said the party’s additional time allows it to be more deliberate in identifying suitable candidates.

“Now that we have a bit of time, you can be more deliberate in choosing the people to represent the party in the constituencies.”

Nana Akomea said the proposed approach to identifying candidates is not new but would be implemented on a larger and more deliberate scale.

“Every party does that.”

He said the party can assess the demographics of orphan constituencies before candidates begin spending resources on campaigns.

“When that determination is done early, then somebody who is not from that demography will not go and waste time to go and campaign, spend money, and then later on you decide that, oh, he may not win.”

He said the NPP had used a similar approach ahead of the 2000 elections.

“In the NPP going to the 2000 elections, we did the same exercise.”

Nana Akomea said the current strategy would simply be more structured.

“So it is not new. Is that we’re going to do it on a scale that is more deliberate, and that is more fulfilling.”