Dr. Arthur Kennedy has explained that his absence from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primaries was deliberate. The Canadian-based medical doctor and long-time NPP member said his decision stemmed from dissatisfaction with the party’s internal electoral process. Dr. Kennedy explained that his concerns about the NPP process were longstanding because he had previously expressed opposition to how the primaries were structured.
According to him, the sequence adopted by the party was flawed, likening it to constructing a building from the roof downward.
“You know, before they did it, I said that it sounds like we’re building a house, and we wanted to build the roof first,” he said. While expressing dissatisfaction with the processes, he clarified that his criticism was not directed at the candidates. He said, “I think all the candidates were fine gentlemen, but I just thought the process was wrong.”
Dr. Kennedy said the NPP should have renewed leadership mandates before selecting a flag bearer, arguing that executives should have returned to the grassroots for legitimacy.
He outlined a bottom-up electoral process, “You do your polling station, electoral constituency, national election so that you have new leaders or re-elected leaders with renewed mandates,” he emphasized. “Only after that process should the party hold a flagbearer race.”
Dr. Kennedy rejected claims that the current approach promotes unity within the NPP. He said unity must be built on credible leadership, emphasizing that the recent process has only complicated the flagbearer’s task. According to him, calls for unity now reflect deeper internal challenges.
Pointing to past voting behavior involving the NPP, he emphasized that party members no longer feel compelled to rally behind candidates automatically. Voters, he said, now exercise greater individual choice.
He questioned the party’s current electoral message, questioning why the NPP is returning to voters with a previously rejected candidate.
On the issue of votes, he described alienation between paid voting delegates and six million nationwide voters, stressing that votes could be ‘bought’ on the party level but not on the national level. He also warned that this challenge extends beyond the NPP, stating that political parties fuel corruption in Ghana’s public space. “I think that the fountainhead of corruption in our public space is the political parties,” he said. “And until we deal with them, Ghana will continue to struggle.”
