Founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has criticised the party’s internal democratic processes, arguing that former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would not have been selected as former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate if the party had strictly adhered to its own rules.
Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the NPP has drifted from the democratic principles on which it was founded, insisting that internal party regulations were overlooked in Dr Bawumia’s selection.
“If our party had been a party that I will call a democratic party, Bawumia would never have been even the running mate to Akufo-Addo,” he stated.
According to Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe, the NPP’s membership guidelines require aspirants seeking leadership positions to be members in good standing, regularly pay party dues, attend at least 50 percent of branch meetings, and maintain active membership for several years before contesting internal elections.
He argued that Dr Bawumia did not satisfy those conditions at the time he was chosen as the party’s vice-presidential candidate.
“Based on the criteria of being a party member in good standing, paying party dues, attending more than 50 per cent of meetings at the branch level and being a member of the party for three or four years before the primary, I will say he did not qualify,” Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said.
The veteran politician warned that political parties, particularly the NPP, risk weakening democratic governance when they fail to uphold their own constitutional requirements.
He further claimed that the party, once regarded as a model of internal democracy, has lost that reputation.
“What is happening in the political parties now, particularly the NPP, surprises me because we were known as the mother of democracy, but that mantle has now been taken over by the NDC. At the moment, the NDC is more democratic than the NPP,” he asserted.
Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe also criticised the NPP’s response to the recent conviction of Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, in an illegal mining case.
He questioned comments by the party’s General Secretary, who described the High Court’s decision as politically motivated shortly after the judgment was delivered.
“How can a case that has been heard by a High Court judge, and in less than 24 hours the party’s General Secretary calls a press conference and says the sentence was politically motivated? This could never have happened under his predecessors,” he said.
His remarks come amid growing debate over internal democracy within the NPP following recent controversies surrounding constituency elections and the conviction of Chairman Wontumi, with some party members and observers calling for reforms to strengthen transparency and adherence to the party’s constitutional processes.
