“Nowhere was it said that we lost because of our flag bearer, the one who bears the flag. We lost because, as a party that had been in government for eight years, there were a number of issues that people were unhappy with.”

He explained that the findings from the surveys highlighted economic challenges, governance attitudes, and internal party issues as key reasons for the NPP’s loss.

“If you read the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation report, over 43% or 45% of the respondents — I think about 16,000 of them — say that the economic challenges of the day were not resolved to their satisfaction,” he stated. “If you read the report, they talk, for example, about the posture and the attitude of people in government. They talk, for example, about the functioning of the party across its value chain and a few other issues — even things including LGBT, etc.”

Oppong Nkrumah dismissed suggestions that blaming Bawumia was a strategy by some party members to push him aside for political gain.

“We have a very clear empirical understanding of why we lost,” he said. “It’s not about trying to hang it all on one person for someone’s interest because they think it would be a convenient way to get him off the stage so that they have an opportunity.”

He added that the lessons from the research are guiding the NPP’s ongoing efforts to reorganise, rebuild its structures, and prepare for future elections.