Founder and leader of the United Party (UP), Alan Kyerematen, has claimed that his departure from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) contributed to the party’s loss of support in the 2024 presidential election.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Mr Kyerematen said he could not personally claim responsibility for the NPP’s entire decline in votes but noted that some NPP stalwarts had acknowledged that his exit played a role.
“I cannot say that I was the reason 2.1 million people didn’t vote for NPP. But from what some NPP stalwarts are saying, my exit contributed in a way,” he said.
He said some NPP members initially dismissed his decision to leave the party and contest the 2024 election as an independent candidate, insisting that he would have little impact on the party’s fortunes.
“They were saying there was no way an independent candidate could make any impact. So if I want to go, they should let me go,” he noted.
According to Mr Kyerematen, some party members also circulated statements aimed at discrediting him after he announced his decision to contest independently.
He said the campaign against him eventually had consequences for the NPP, arguing that some voters who had previously supported the party chose not to vote for it following his departure.
“Do you know that after leaving the party and contesting as an independent candidate, 2.1 million voters didn’t vote for the NPP? And after leaving too, they kept saying, if he wants to go, he should go. I said openly to people that the time was short to organise people to vote for me,” he stated.
Mr Kyerematen said claims that he lacked the support base to make an impact were also part of the narrative against his independent bid.
“Then there was propaganda that I didn’t have people to vote for me. Their own report after losing the election said, Since they said Alan Kyerematen is an independent candidate, then we will also not vote for them,” he noted.
He suggested that further details from the NPP’s post-election assessment could shed more light on the reasons for the party’s decline.
Official election results show that the NPP’s presidential candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia, obtained 4,877,611 votes in the 2024 presidential election, compared with the 6,730,587 votes secured by the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo in 2020, a decline of about 1.85 million votes. Alan Kyerematen, who contested as an independent candidate, obtained 32,457 votes.
Mr Kyerematen said he would make further revelations on the matter in due course.
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