NPP-USA Members Reject Revised Election Guidelines

Some members of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) U.S. branch are angry after the party issued revised election guidelines, which they say strip hundreds of dues-paying members of their voting rights, while easing the path for some candidates to contest office.

The dispute centers on two sets of directives for external branch elections. According to an open letter circulating across NPP-USA WhatsApp platforms and reportedly authored by a Massachusetts Chapter member, the first draft of the guidelines was “a copy-and-paste exercise” from domestic constituency rules that clashed with the branch’s bylaws.

After members raised alarms, party officials reportedly met with external branch leaders to ask how their elections are currently run.

“They wrote the guidelines first. Then they asked how we run our elections,” the letter states.
The Second Directive: Higher Bar to Vote, Lower Bar to Run
The revised guidelines, approved at the party’s National Executive Committee meeting on April 8, 2026 changed two key thresholds for NPP-USA.
First, the voting eligibility requirement was raised from one year of registered, good-standing membership to two years.

NPP-USA’s bylaws and 2022 Election Guidelines currently allow members who have been registered for at least one year and paid all financial obligations to vote.

The branch says 861 members paid dues under that rule, but the new threshold would disqualify over 600 of them, more than 70% of its card-bearing membership.
Second, the same revised document reduces the eligibility to contest for branch office from four years to two years.

Members, however, think the change has created a double standard. They point to recent radio interviews in which the General Secretary told Ghanaians at home that newly registered members would be eligible to vote in the party’s upcoming internal elections to encourage registration.

“Taxation without Representation”
The letter frames the issue as a breach of contract between the party and its members: “You cannot take people’s money and deny them their voice. That is taxation without representation.” It claims NPP-USA accepted dues from the 600-plus members now affected, counted them on membership rolls, and used their numbers to demonstrate strength.
The revised rules, members say, undermine the branch’s One-Member-One-Vote principle, a system NPP-USA pioneered among the party’s external branches.

“When you accept 861 people’s dues and then tell 600 of them that their votes do not count, you have not reformed a process. You have executed a democratic heist,” the letter states.
Critics of the guidelines allege the changes surgically benefit a small group.

The letter claims the new two-year contesting threshold creates a pathway for “exactly four individuals” who would not have qualified under the branch’s established four-year requirement. At the same time, it says, over 600 voters who might scrutinize those candidacies are removed from the register.
Demands from the Branch
NPP-USA members are now demanding that the revised guidelines be immediately withdrawn or substantively revised for external branches through genuine consultation. Among these demands are the restoration of the one-year voting threshold that has governed previous branch elections,
preservation of  the four-year contesting requirement for branch office,  formal explanation from the General Secretary on why the voting threshold was raised while the contesting threshold was lowered in the same document.

 

 

 

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