Former Energy Minister and New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, Boakye Agyarko, has issued a warning to the party’s leadership, calling for an immediate reversal of the announced timeline for its 2026 presidential primaries.
This follows the party announcing January 31, 2026, as the set date for its presidential primaries, following recommendations from its constitutional review process.
In a statement sighted by Channel One News on Wednesday June 18, Agyarko criticised the decision to elect a flagbearer on January 31, 2026—before conducting internal elections for polling station, constituency, regional, and national executives—arguing that the move contradicts the party’s founding principles and threatens its future electoral prospects.
“The NPP has always prided itself on order, process, and bottom-up empowerment. The grassroots—the polling station executives, electoral area coordinators, and constituency officers—are the heart of this party. We build from the ground up, not from the top down,” he stated.
Agyarko described the party’s current approach as a “sudden reversal of procedure” that is alien to the NPP’s culture and global democratic norms, labelling it “political opportunism masquerading as strategy.”
The decision, ratified by the National Executive Committee (NEC) on Tuesday, June 17, has drawn mixed reactions, with some members questioning its timing and strategic implications for the 2028 general elections.
“If we truly intend to win power in 2028, we must not start the journey with internal confusion and illogical sequencing,” Agyarko cautioned.
Calling the roadmap a “strategic suicide note,” he urged the party to uphold its tradition of grassroots engagement and legitimacy.
“I call on the NEC and all well-meaning stakeholders of the NPP to immediately revisit and reverse this timeline,” he said. “Let us conduct the executive elections from polling stations upward in sequence—and only then, after our structures are legitimately in place, proceed to elect our flagbearer.”
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