The Next NPP PC for Ayawaso West Wuogon should be chosen by capacity, not gender

The debate over who should become the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency going into the crucial 2028 elections has taken an interesting turn. One argument now being advanced is that a woman could constitute the party’s “winning formula” in the constituency. That proposition deserves scrutiny.

The central question confronting the NPP in Ayawaso West Wuogon should not be whether its next parliamentary candidate is a man or a woman. The more important question is whether that candidate possesses the political capacity, constituency intelligence, grassroots networks and organisational infrastructure required to mount a credible campaign in one of Ghana’s most politically competitive constituencies.

Gender is a demographic characteristic. It is not, by itself, a campaign strategy.

What the 2024 Election Tells Us

The 2024 parliamentary election provides an important starting point for this discussion. The NPP candidate, Lydia Seyram Alhassan, polled 27,377 votes against John Dumelo’s 40,561, giving the NDC candidate a margin of 13,184 votes.

That result should compel the party to interrogate the fundamentals of electoral performance rather than reduce the next contest to a question of whether a male or female candidate is more likely to succeed.

I would rather ask a more useful question: What characteristics must the next candidate possess to compete effectively in Ayawaso West Wuogon?

Ayawaso West Wuogon is not an electoral laboratory in which one demographic variable can simply be substituted for another and expected to produce a different outcome. If gender alone were a sufficient determinant of electoral performance, being a woman (X) would have translated into a higher vote share (Y) for the NPP. Yet, the 2024 result demonstrates that gender by itself cannot explain electoral success.

The constituency is a sophisticated one with distinct voter blocs, socioeconomic groups and political networks. A viable candidate therefore needs deep constituency intelligence.

That means understanding the electoral geography of the constituency, knowing the community-level dynamics, understanding the concerns of residents, maintaining sustained contact with party delegates and appreciating the operational realities of every electoral area, including knowing the people who constitute the political machinery of the constituency.

The candidate required is someone who has not merely discovered Ayawaso West Wuogon because an election is approaching, but someone whose political and community engagement demonstrates institutional memory and continuity.

Delegate Relations Matter

A candidate seeking the party’s nomination in AWW must understand how constituency structures work, maintain credible relationships with delegates and demonstrate an ability to build consensus across the party’s organisational architecture.

This is where political proximity and sustained engagement become relevant.

A candidate who has spent considerable time working with delegates, understanding their concerns and participating in constituency activities enters the primary with a different kind of institutional knowledge from someone whose engagement becomes prominent only when he or she thinks, “The constituency is now an orphan, so let me try my luck!”

The Campaign Machinery Test

Winning a parliamentary election requires more than meets the eye. It requires campaign architecture.

A serious candidate must be capable of building and coordinating a formidable campaign machinery encompassing polling-station organisation, electoral-area coordination, communications, volunteer mobilisation, fundraising, voter identification, data management, rapid-response communication and election-day operations.

This is fundamentally a question of organisational capacity.

Who can convert political goodwill into a functioning field operation?

Who can coordinate electoral-area structures?

Who understands voter-contact strategy?

Who can mobilise volunteers?

Who can develop a coherent communications architecture?

Who can sustain the campaign financially and operationally?

These are practical competencies that can be examined and demonstrated. Gender cannot substitute for them.

This Is Not About a Man or a Woman

The NPP’s choice in Ayawaso West Wuogon should not become a contest between men and women. Gender is not a campaign strategy, and neither being a man nor a woman is, by itself, an electoral qualification.

The real test is capacity: Who knows the constituency? Who knows the delegates? Who has built relationships over time? Who understands the electoral terrain? Who can unite the party’s interests, mobilise the grassroots and build a campaign capable of winning back the seat?

These are the questions that matter. The NPP does not need a candidate chosen because of gender; it needs a candidate chosen because of demonstrated capacity to compete, organise and win.

The Candidate Should Be Judged by What They Can Build

As a stakeholder who engages regularly with delegates and follows developments within the constituency, I believe the conversation should ultimately be guided by the candidate’s demonstrated ability to understand the constituency, build trust, organise effectively and compete for the seat, and not be reduced to one non-existent casual claim of a “winning formula”.

The responsibility for choosing the parliamentary candidate ultimately rests with the party’s delegates. Their decision should be informed by the qualities and capabilities they believe are necessary to compete effectively in Ayawaso West Wuogon.

Ultimately, the responsibility for choosing the parliamentary candidate rests with the party’s delegates. They should therefore look beyond gender and consider demonstrated capacity, constituency knowledge, grassroots relationships, organisational experience and the ability to unite and mobilise the party. The choice should favour sustained commitment over sudden interest; proven engagement over political convenience; and those who have built relationships within the constituency over time, not those who have only recently discovered an “orphan constituency” and see it as an opportunity to launch a political career.