Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, has petitioned the leadership of the New Patriotic Party to begin disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, the Effiduase-Asokore MP, over claims made during an appeal relating to the party’s 2026 constituency executive elections.
In the petition dated July 12, 2026, Mr Kwarteng also asked the party to reverse a recommendation by the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee that cleared Kofi Appianin Ennin to contest for the position of First Vice Chairman in the Obuasi West Constituency.
The petition, addressed to the NPP General Secretary and copied to key party officials, argues that the regional committee relied on what Mr Kwarteng describes as an unverified and false claim that Kofi Appianin Ennin’s independent candidature during the 2024 general election was part of a deliberate party strategy.
Mr Kwarteng, who served as the NPP’s parliamentary candidate and campaign manager for Obuasi West in the 2024 elections, rejected that assertion.
“As Campaign Manager for the Obuasi West campaign in 2024, and now as Member of Parliament for the constituency, I was directly responsible for the campaign’s strategy and decisions at the constituency level,” he wrote.
He insisted that, “No decision was made, by me, by the Constituency Executive Committee, or by any properly constituted Party organ known to me, to authorise, sponsor, or support the independent candidature run against the Party’s own candidate.”
According to the petition, the Constituency Appeals Committee had earlier upheld the disqualification of aspiring Youth Organiser Kofi Owusu Ansah, aspiring Second Vice Chairman Joseph Kwabena Bonsu, and aspiring First Vice Chairman Kofi Appianin Ennin.
However, the committee indicated that its position could change if evidence emerged that Mr Ennin’s independent candidature and the support he received from the other two aspirants resulted from a party decision.
Mr Kwarteng said Hon. Nana Ayew Afriyie affirmed that claim, which was subsequently adopted by the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee in its recommendation dated July 6, 2026.
He argued that the regional committee “treated the claim as established fact” without identifying “any evidence, inquiry, or verification beyond the say-so of the Appellants and Hon. Dr Ayew Afriyie.”
The Obuasi West MP further contended that even if such authorisation had existed, it would have had no legal effect under the party’s constitution.
“The Constitution does not vest any individual, officer, or committee with power to waive or pre-authorise” the automatic forfeiture of membership for supporting or contesting against the party’s officially sponsored candidate, he argued.
Mr Kwarteng also warned that allowing the recommendation to stand could damage the NPP’s public image.
“To let the official Party record show that Party leadership secretly authorised and ran an independent candidate against its own sponsored candidate… would present the Party as willing to manipulate the electoral process and mislead the electorate,” the petition stated.
He said such a perception “risks real damage to public trust in the Party’s honesty and fitness to govern, with consequences for its fortunes in the 2028 general election.”
Among the reliefs sought, Mr Kwarteng is asking the National Disciplinary Committee to commence disciplinary proceedings against Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie over what he describes as the affirmation of “a claim of Party authorisation that I contend is false and that amounts to bringing the name of the Party into disrepute.”
He further requested that the committee impose sanctions under Article 4 of the party’s constitution, including “reprimand, suspension, or disqualification from holding office or position within the Party for a stated period,” if deemed appropriate.
The petition also seeks the reversal of the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee’s recommendation clearing Kofi Appianin Ennin to contest and the reinstatement of the Constituency Appeals Committee’s earlier disqualification of Mr Ennin, Kofi Owusu Ansah and Joseph Kwabena Bonsu.
