Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy has called on the ruling New Patriotic Party to avoid electing a flagbearer earlier than scheduled.

According to him, doing so will distract the government and also create the impression of Ghana having two presidents – the outgoing one, in this case, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo – and the incoming one – that is whoever wins the flagbearership race.

Arthur K, as he is popularly known, is also worried that the NPP seems focused on the 2024 polls instead of the current mandate of President Akufo-Addo.

The one-time presidential aspirant wants the NPP to focus on delivering on promises made in the Akufo-Addo final term that spans between 2021 – 2025.

In an interview weeks ago on Accra-based Neat FM, he told host Adakabre Frimpong Manso, “Electing a flagbearer one year to the election is a good idea… If we elect someone that early, we will be creating in the mind of the party and the country, two presidents – the coming one and the going one.

“On the ground, as the time gets nearer, even though the outgoing president has legal authority, the successor gets more moral and informal authority and it can sway over the party and country,” he added.

“It is injurious to focus on the next mandate when we have a mandate we can deliver right now. The problems we hope to solve with the next mandate, we can solve right now, to protect the public purse, we don’t need the 2024 mandate to protect the public purse.”

At a recent party conference in the Ashanti Region, delegates deferred decisions on a raft of proposals to a committee following which a national conference will be held to take decisions and elect a flagbearer.

The party has ramped up its ‘Break The Eight’ mantra as it hopes to be the first under the Fourth Republican dispensation to win more than two successive terms.

The race to replace Akufo-Addo as flagbebearer is currently between Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Other contenders include Agric Minister Afriyie Akoto Osei and Joe Ghartey.