Joseph Osei Owusu, chairman of the New Patriotic Party’s Presidential Elections Committee, has questiojoned the legal grounds of a challenge seeking to bar political parties from using the electoral college system to select their candidates.
In an interview with Bullet TV’s Bright Nana Amfoh, Mr. Osei Owusu, a former lawmaker, argued that the practice does not violate Ghana’s laws. He pointed to the 1992 Constitution, which he said grants political parties the authority to regulate their internal affairs so long as they do not contravene the nation’s fundamental principles.
“To the best of my knowledge, the Constitution allows each party to draw up its own constitution,” he said. “If you draw a constitution that contravenes the principles and letter of the national Constitution, then it will be struck down.” He said.
Mr. Osei Owusu was responding to a lawsuit filed on January 23, 2026, by three prominent elder statespersons who petitioned the Supreme Court to dismantle the “delegate-based” electoral systems employed by Ghana’s major political parties. The plaintiffs, renowned cardiothoracic surgeon Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, medical practitioner Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, and former Minister of State Dr. Christine Amoako-Nuamah argue that the current method of selecting presidential and parliamentary candidates is both unconstitutional and “oligarchic.”
They contend that the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) have eroded broad-based democracy by replacing it with a “restricted electoral college” system.
