Internal tensions within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Constituency of the Western Region have deepened, with senior constituency executives boycotting the inauguration of the party’s Polling Station Elections Committee and petitioning national leadership to dissolve and reconstitute it.
The boycott follows allegations that the formation of the committees violated the party’s own guidelines, with dissatisfied executives contending that the process was manipulated to favour individuals aligned with particular interests within the constituency.
The petition, signed by Augustine Quaicoe, the Constituency Organiser; Frank Gyemfi, Second Vice Chairman; and Kwadwo Antiedu Kwarteng, the Financial Secretary, states that the committees were set up without convening a meeting of the Constituency Executive Committee and without following the prescribed categories for committee membership.
Speaking to the media, Kwarteng said persons who should have been included, among them former constituency executives, assemblymen associated with the party, former Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, and polling station executives, were bypassed in favour of individuals he described as aligned to specific opinion leaders.
He cited the Cyanide and Kwabedu electoral area as a specific example, alleging that staff of a named individual were designated as opinion leaders and appointed to the committee, despite having previously caused disruptions during the polling station registration exercise.
The petition further alleges that the Regional Secretary, Henry Amankwa Afrifa, openly admitted at the inauguration that time pressure had led him to push for names to be submitted hastily, after the required four-day advance submission deadline had already been missed. The petitioners also allege that names presented at the inauguration differed from previously known submissions, without consultation or approval from the appropriate party organs.
The latest dispute is a continuation of a pattern of internal friction in the constituency, which has been simmering since the NPP’s March 2026 membership registration exercise was marred by confusion and allegations of procedural violations, raising fresh questions about internal discipline in what was once considered a key stronghold.
Kwarteng called on the NPP national executives to treat the petition as a matter of principle rather than minority dissent. “The party must not be allowed to collapse on the altar of extreme autocracy disguised as expediency or majority will,” he warned.
The petitioners are asking the national leadership to declare the committees null and void and ensure they are reconstituted in full compliance with the party’s guidelines.
