Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NAPO), the New Patriotic Party’s 2024 Vice-Presidential Candidate in the 2024 general elections, has conceded that the party’s overwhelming defeat in the last general elections was largely due to a breakdown in communication and trust between the NPP and the Ghanaian people.

Speaking on Accra-Joy FM on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, the former Energy and Education Minister said months of reflection had convinced him that the party misread the public mood and failed to meaningfully engage citizens.

“One thing I’ve concluded in the last 10 months is that there was a broken trust between citizens and government.

The trust that was broken hurt so much that we saw the results so broken,” Dr. Opoku Prempeh stated.

Pressed further about the cause of this rupture, he was frank: “We didn’t listen enough; we assumed a lot of things we shouldn’t have assumed.”

He acknowledged that external factors — including spiralling global shipping costs and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic — deepened economic challenges and created widespread hardship.

He noted that many countries experienced similar anti-incumbency waves, with only authoritarian regimes escaping the trend.

“People had died in their droves that had never been seen before, without a military crisis or World War,” he observed.

Despite these pressures, Dr. Opoku Prempeh insisted the NPP’s biggest error was internal: its failure to respond to the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians, which ultimately eroded trust and contributed to its electoral loss.

He emphasised that rebuilding credibility would require deliberate reforms, stronger listening structures, and consistent engagement with the public to avoid repeating past mistakes.

Dr. Prempeh, who previously served as MP for Manhyia South, also reaffirmed his support for, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, ahead of the NPP’s January 2026 presidential primaries.

He described Dr. Bawumia as the party’s strongest candidate to lead a comeback against the governing National Democratic Congress.

The other contenders in the upcoming primaries include:

Kennedy Agyapong, former MP for Assin Central,

Dr. Bryan Acheampong, MP for Abetifi,

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, MP for Bosomtwe, and

Kwabena Agyapong, former General Secretary of the party.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh urged the party to take lessons from its defeat seriously as it charts a new path toward regaining power in 2028.