The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has begun a nationwide search for potential parliamentary candidates as it steps up preparations for the 2028 general elections, presidential candidate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed.
Dr Bawumia said the initiative is aimed at identifying individuals with strong prospects of winning parliamentary seats, even if they have not emerged through the party’s traditional internal primary process.
He said the decision was informed by concerns that financial strength and popularity within an internal contest do not necessarily translate into victory in a general election.
“We are going to do a candidate search across all the constituencies, because some people can win parliamentary primaries because they have money, but they can’t win the general elections,” Dr Bawumia said.
According to him, allowing candidates to emerge solely through internal primaries could leave the party vulnerable in constituencies where the eventual winner may struggle to defeat the opposition in the general election.
“If you leave it to them, they will win the primary, but you’ve lost the seat,” he said.
Independent assessments
Dr Bawumia said the NPP’s candidate search is already underway and will draw on multiple independent sources to assess potential candidates across constituencies.
“Candidate search is going on and we’re going to have more than one candidate search from independent sources. And we’ll compare what they are saying,” he said.
He explained that the assessments would enable the party to identify individuals considered capable of winning particular constituencies, after which the NPP could approach them and encourage them to contest.
“Because if we find out that this is the person who can win us the seat, we’ll persuade that person to come on board and help us to win the seat,” he added.
The approach signals a broader strategy by the party to place electoral viability at the centre of its parliamentary candidate selection ahead of the 2028 polls.
Early internal elections planned
Beyond the search for prospective candidates, Dr Bawumia said the NPP intends to complete its internal elections as early as possible to give the party sufficient time to prepare for the general election.
He said the process would begin with parliamentary constituency elections and would include engagements with sitting Members of Parliament.
“We are going to also be looking to try to have our parliamentary elections as soon as possible, so that NPP will be done with internal elections,” he said.
He added that the party would work to ensure transparency throughout the internal election process.
The candidate-search initiative forms part of the NPP’s broader strategy to strengthen its parliamentary fortunes ahead of 2028, with the party seeking to retain existing seats while identifying opportunities to win constituencies currently held by other parties.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
