The New Patriotic Party's Ashanti Regional Communications Director, Paul Yandoh, has admitted that the party's regional executives deliberately facilitated an independent candidature in the Obuasi West Constituency during the 2024 general election as a tactical move to save the seat, and that Obuasi West MP Kwaku Kwarteng himself was kept in the dark about the plan.
Speaking in an interview on Citi FM on July 13, 2026, Yandoh pushed back against Kwarteng's petition to the party's General Secretary, in which the MP alleged misconduct and sought disciplinary action against Effiduase-Asokore MP Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie over related constituency executive matters.
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Yandoh did not deny that a plan had been put in place involving an independent candidate but argued that the move was a necessary and calculated intervention that ultimately preserved Kwarteng's seat, even if the MP was unaware it was happening.
"If he doesn't know, Kwaku Kwarteng was gone; he had actually lost. The regional party had intelligence of whatever was being done to him at his own doorstep without him being aware.
"That is why there is the regional party and the constituency party. What the regional party can see, it will sometimes be difficult for the constituency party to see," he said.
The Regional Communications Director went further, arguing that the votes cast for the independent candidate would have gone to the NDC had the plan not been executed, and that the arithmetic was simple.
"If you add the independent candidate's vote to the NDC, he would have lost. Kwaku would not understand because he thought he would win," he said.
When confronted with Kwarteng's assertion that fielding an independent candidate against the party's own MP was "unconstitutional", Yandoh was unapologetic.
"He should just sit there and be saying 'unconstitutional and what not.' That unconstitutional thing that he's talking about saved him," he fired back.
Yandoh also took aim at Kwarteng's decision to go public with his grievances rather than engaging the regional party through internal channels, stating that the MP had a "temperament" problem and was escalating the matter.
"He knows it. He is a senior party member. Sometimes they just ignore and go ahead to do whatever they feel like doing and leave all of us to suffer the consequences.
"We know him. He has temperament issues. So sometimes we do things to save him. He should rather commend us. We saved him," he said.
On the broader issue of internal party decisions being discussed publicly, Yandoh warned that the NPP's opponents were listening closely, arguing that sensitive tactical decisions should never be aired on radio and television.
"The reason why we lost the last election was because most of our tactics were being discussed on radio. There are issues that cannot be discussed in the presence of our opponents, who have their ears open," he said.
He urged Kwarteng to bring his concerns to the regional party for discussion rather than going to the media.
Kwarteng had petitioned the NPP General Secretary on July 12, 2026, seeking disciplinary action against Dr Ayew Afriyie and the reversal of a regional executive recommendation that cleared one of the independent candidature-linked aspirants to contest for the position of First Vice Chairman in Obuasi West.
JHM/BAI
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