New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Mahamudu Bawumia has called on delegates to end internal divisions after the party’s national executive elections and unite behind the goal of returning to government in 2029.
Speaking at the party’s National Delegates Conference in Kumasi on Saturday, 3 October 2026, Dr Bawumia thanked the Ashanti Region for its continued support and described the conference as both the conclusion of one chapter and the beginning of another.
He praised the outgoing executives for guiding the NPP through the difficult period following its electoral defeat and for beginning a restructuring process. He paid particular tribute to Acting National Chairman Danquah Smith Buttey, former Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, known as Chairman Wontumi, and National Chairman Stephen Ayesu Ntim.
Dr Bawumia also recognised former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, crediting their administrations with major social interventions including National Health Insurance, Free Maternity Health Care, the School Feeding Programme and Free Senior High School. He also cited the party’s traditional foundations of freedom, enterprise and the rule of law, associated with Danquah, Busia and Dombo.
Forty-seven candidates contested nine national executive positions. Dr Bawumia urged them to accept the outcome peacefully, saying the contest was an internal process and should end once voting was concluded.
He told successful candidates to reach out first to their fellow aspirants, while assuring those who lost that the party still needed their contribution.
The NPP presidential candidate said the party had spent the period since December 2024 listening to Ghanaians, its grassroots members and stakeholders. Those consultations, he said, had informed changes to the way the party organised itself, communicated and developed policy.
He added that the NPP’s decision to hold its presidential primary early had allowed him, after his election at the beginning of the year, to establish policy committees and begin preparing a 2029 governance programme. “We will not wait for the campaign to start thinking about how to govern,” he said.
Dr Bawumia used the speech to attack the record of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), arguing that it had failed to deliver key promises almost two years into its administration. He said the proposed 24-hour economy had not produced the promised jobs, while demolitions linked to 24-hour markets had destroyed livelihoods in Labadi.
He also criticised the failure to establish the Women’s Development Bank, increases in electricity tariffs, rising transport and rent costs, and worsening pressures on households and businesses despite inflation falling to 5%.
He credited the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, launched by the Bank of Ghana in June 2021 on his recommendation, with helping protect the cedi from global shocks. He claimed the programme supported current currency stability, inflation and interest-rate reductions, while accusing the government of making unprecedented losses from it in 2025.
He further accused the NDC of abandoning Agenda 111, undermining Free Senior High School, failing to tackle galamsey, and breaking promises on cocoa prices, teacher and nurse postings, teacher licensing examinations, Menzgold compensation and the Nkoko nkitikiti programme.
Dr Bawumia also raised concerns about drug seizures abroad, alleged abuses of state power and what he described as unequal treatment under the justice system. He called for a bipartisan parliamentary committee to investigate drug shipments and defended Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, who was detained after voluntarily reporting to EOCO.
He promised that an NPP government would apply one standard of justice to all citizens and said the party would return to power in 2029, “by the grace of God”.
He ended by urging delegates to leave Kumasi united, accept the election results with grace and return to their constituencies with the message that “the NPP is back at work for Ghana.”
