<<Print>>

National Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa has said that the eight-year cycle in which power alternates between the two leading parties will not be automatic in the 2024 elections.

According to him, the 2024 elections will be based on the party that has quality leadership which he says the NPP has in abundance.

Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM, the former Adentan Member of Parliament (MP) said that the 2020 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has no solution to economic challenges confronting the country.

He said the only solution the former president has proffered since he went into opposition has been an IMF bailout programme which according to him, members of the NDC have rejected.

He maintained the NDC's defeat in 2016 and 2020 elections were a testament to the party’s inability to win political power.

Mr. Asamoa stressed that the governing NPP had more quality leadership than their political rivals.

The lawyer was commenting on a recent EIU report which said the NDC stood a greater chance of winning the 2024 elections.

“Since John Mahama wanted the IMF and his party’s leadership have discredited the IMF, he hasn’t come back to the public to tell us his views, whether or not he is taking us to the IMF or he has other things in mind.

“We believe that he doesn’t have anything more than the IMF to offer the people of Ghana and if the IMF is not the solution, then the eight-year cycle will not be automatic, it will be based on the quality of leadership and that we have in abundance,” he stated.

The EIU in its report observed that anti-incumbency factors will cause the NPP to lose the next elections but the NDC, which stands a great chance of winning the polls, should change John Mahama to increase their chances at winning.

“The next parliamentary and presidential elections are due in 2024.“Under constitutionally mandated term limits, the incumbent President Akufo-Addo, cannot run for a third term.The former president, John Mahama, is reportedly considering running again, but we expect the opposition NDC to try to revitalize its prospects with a fresh candidate.

“Our [EIU] baseline forecast is that ongoing public dissatisfaction with the slow pace of improvements in governance—such as infrastructure development, job creation and easing of corruption—will trigger anti-incumbency factors and push the electorate to seek a change,” the report emphasized.

John Mahama led the NDC to two electoral defeats in 2016 and 2020 after winning his first term in 2012.