Founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has criticised the party’s internal democratic processes, claiming that former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would not have qualified to become former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate if the party had strictly adhered to its own membership requirements.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe argued that the NPP has drifted from the democratic principles on which it was founded.

“If our party had been a party that I will call a democratic party, Bawumia would never have been even the running mate to Akufo-Addo,” he said.

According to him, clear criteria for members seeking leadership positions include being a member in good standing, paying party dues, attending at least 50 percent of branch meetings and maintaining active membership for several years before contesting internal elections.

He claimed that when Dr Bawumia was selected as running mate, those requirements had not been met.

“Based on the criteria of being a party member in good standing, paying party dues, attending more than 50 per cent of meetings at the branch level and being a member of the party for three or four years before the primary, I will say he did not qualify,” he stated.

Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe warned that political parties, particularly the NPP, must be careful not to undermine democratic values through their internal decisions.

“What is happening in the political parties now, particularly the NPP, surprises me because we were known as the mother of democracy, but that mantle has now been taken over by the NDC. At the moment, the NDC is more democratic than the NPP,” he said.

He also criticised comments made by the NPP General Secretary following the conviction of the party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi.

Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe questioned how the party’s leadership could describe the court’s decision as politically motivated less than 24 hours after the judgment.

“How can a case that has been heard by a High Court judge, and in less than 24 hours the party’s General Secretary calls a press conference and says the sentence was politically motivated? This could never have happened under his predecessors,” he said.

His comments come at a time of heightened debate over internal democracy within the NPP, following recent controversies surrounding constituency elections and the conviction of Chairman Wontumi in an illegal mining case.