Fiery legal scholar and governance expert Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has unleashed a scathing critique of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) proposed internal reforms, labelling them a “strategic power grab” rather than a genuine attempt at renewal.
He warns that the controversial roadmap threatens to undermine both party democracy and the integrity of Ghana’s political system.
Speaking with The New Republic, Prof. Asare, a Democracy and Development Fellow at CDD-Ghana, tore into the NPP’s “dangerous” sequencing of internal elections.
The party’s timetable shockingly prioritizes polling station elections in December 2025 and presidential primaries in January 2026, leaving the crucial election of party executives indefinitely postponed.
“This sequencing is not just unconventional. It is dangerous, both for internal party democracy and for the integrity of Ghana’s broader political system,” Prof. Asare declared. He questioned the logic of a party that just suffered a national election defeat rushing to select its next presidential candidate before restructuring its grassroots and executive base.
Prof. Asare likened the NPP’s approach to “planting seeds in soil that has not been tilled,” arguing it severely undermines accountability and exposes a party uninterested in genuine reform.
His sharpest criticism was reserved for the NPP’s deafening silence on its 2024 electoral defeat.
“What mistakes were made? Which policies backfired? How did leadership decisions shape the outcome?” he demanded, highlighting the party’s failure to conduct a transparent post-mortem. This absence, he asserts, cripples the credibility of their current reform efforts.
The legal luminary suggested that the decision not to release a post-election review points to a leadership in denial, more concerned with protecting individual interests than upholding core party values.
Further fanning the flames, Prof. Asare lambasted the continued influence of party executives who presided over the NPP’s 2024 loss. These very figures, he noted, are now leading the so-called reform effort.
“This is not reform. It is recycling,” he stated unequivocally, arguing that the party is merely reinforcing old leadership and masquerading it as a fresh start.
He stressed that true reform demands accountability, yet the NPP’s current trajectory appears to be a “recycling exercise,” marginalizing grassroots voices while retaining the old guard.
Prof. Asare also hit hard at the NPP’s internal electoral structure, particularly the delegate system, which he believes empowers a select few through financial inducements and incumbency. “Ordinary party members remain voiceless in decisions that affect the entire party,” he lamented, echoing calls for democratization of party processes that date back to 2005.
Prof. Asare’s message to the NPP is stark: ignore calls for grassroots empowerment, transparency, and genuine accountability at your peril.
He warned that the current timetable paints a grim picture of a party desperate for a presidential candidate before fixing its internal structures, avoiding its past, keeping the defeated in charge, and sidelining its membership.
“This is not renewal. It is a retreat disguised as progress,” he cautioned. For the NPP to be taken seriously as a party aspiring to return to power, he urged them to release their post-mortem, refresh their leadership, reform their electoral system, and rebuild from the grassroots up.
He concluded with a powerful appeal for the party to confront its shortcomings directly, emphasizing that genuine reform is hard work. “Let the scheming stop. Let the system breathe.
Let the people speak,” he warned, stressing that bypassing accountability and rushing to select a presidential candidate fundamentally undermines democratic principles. Trust, he asserted, must be diligently restored through meaningful action.