A bitter dispute has erupted between the New Patriotic Party’s U.S. branch and the party’s national leadership in Accra, after revised election guidelines for external branches left more than 600 dues-paying members of NPP-USA facing disenfranchisement ahead of internal polls.
The controversy was laid bare in a blistering open letter by Theophilus Nkansah, popularly known as Senator Theo of the NPP Massachusetts Chapter, titled “KODUA CASHED OUR DUES, THEN KILLED OUR VOTES.” The document has since ricocheted through WhatsApp groups across NPP chapters in the United States and other external branches.
Two Letters, One Firestorm
According to the letter, trouble began with the first set of guidelines issued by General Secretary Justin Kodua Frimpong, Esq. for external branch elections. Senator Theo called it “a rough draft disguised as policy” and “a copy-and-paste exercise lifted from domestic constituency rules” that ignored NPP-USA’s bylaws and over 30 years of practice.
After external branches protested, the General Secretary and his Director of External Affairs reportedly met with branch leaders to ask how they currently run elections. “They wrote the guidelines first. Then they asked how we run our elections,” the letter states. “That is not leadership. That is negligence dressed in a suit.”
What followed, approved at the party’s National Executive Committee meeting on April 8, 2026, has triggered even sharper backlash.
Voting Harder, Contesting Easier
The revised guidelines did two things at once, the letter argues. First, they raised the voting eligibility threshold from one year to two years of registered, good-standing membership. Under NPP-USA’s bylaws and 2022 Election Guidelines, members registered for at least one year who have paid all dues are eligible to vote. The branch says 861 members paid dues under that rule.
“With a single stroke of a pen in Accra, over 600 members, more than 70 percent of this Branch’s card-bearing, dues-paying membership are stripped of their right to vote,” Senator Theo wrote. “Not because they did anything wrong. Not because they owe a single dollar.”
Second, the same document reduced eligibility to contest for branch office from four years to two years.
“Read that one more time. The right to vote was made harder. The right to run for office was made easier. In the same document. By the same hand,” the letter states.
Members say the changes mean longtime organizers and fundraisers are barred from voting, while individuals who joined two years ago — who “may never have organized a single event, never trained a single polling agent, never given a single dollar to a campaign” — can now run for office.
‘Taxation Without Representation’
The letter frames the issue as a moral breach of contract: “You cannot take people’s money and deny them their voice. That is taxation without representation. It is the oldest democratic crime in the book.”
It argues that NPP-USA accepted dues from the 600-plus members, counted them on membership rolls, and used their numbers to project strength. “And now the Party is telling them: thank you for your money, but you do not get to vote.”
Senator Theo says the move demolishes the One-Member-One-Vote principle that NPP-USA pioneered among external branches. “When you accept 861 people’s dues and then tell 600 of them that their votes do not count, you have not reformed a process. You have executed a democratic heist.”
Accusations of Double Standard
The letter also accuses the General Secretary of applying one standard at home and another abroad. It claims that during recent membership drives in Ghana, Kodua Frimpong told radio audiences on stations like Peace FM and Asempa FM that newly registered members would be eligible to vote in upcoming internal elections.
“How does a General Secretary tell Ghanaians at home that new members can vote, and then tell Ghanaians in America that their one-year-old membership is worthless?” the letter asks. “How does that double standard not break the front of a political party?”
‘Who Benefits?’
The letter alleges the new rules create a path for “exactly four individuals” who did not meet the branch’s four-year contesting requirement to now qualify, while removing “the very electorate that would have scrutinized those candidacies.”
“Over 600 voters removed. Four contestants were added. That is not coincidence. That is architecture,” Senator Theo wrote. He noted that “whispers of inducement” between certain aspirants and the General Secretary’s office are circulating, though he added, “We are not in a position to verify them.”
Demands From the Diaspora
The letter ends with four demands to party leadership:
1. Immediately withdraw or substantively revise* the guidelines for external branches through genuine consultation.
2. Restore the one-year voting threshold* used in every credible election the branch has conducted.
3. *Preserve the four-year contesting requirement* to protect the branch from capture.
4. A formal explanation* from the General Secretary on why the voting threshold was raised while the contesting threshold was lowered in the same document.
It also calls on the national party to recognize that “the external branches are not a subsidiary to be managed from Accra. It is a pillar to be respected.”
A Branch Built on Sacrifice
Senator Theo traced NPP-USA’s roots to “living rooms in Maryland, in church basements in New Jersey and New York, in rented halls in Atlanta, in the apartments of students in Ohio who pooled their last dollars to buy airtime and call home to campaign.” He credited the branch with pioneering electronic voting and the “1 Constituency, 1 Chapter” model for diaspora engagement.
“The General Secretary… cannot and will not break the spine of this Branch. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever,” the letter states. “What is happening is not reform. It is demolition dressed as policy.”
Awaiting Accra’s Response
As of press time, the Office of the General Secretary had not issued a public response to the letter or the specific allegations. With branch elections looming, more than 600 NPP-USA members remain uncertain whether they will be on the voter register.
“The foundation of NPP-USA was laid with sacrifice. It was cemented with conviction,” Senator Theo wrote. “That foundation will hold. The Branch will not fall.”
The standoff now tests the NPP’s handling of its diaspora — a bloc that has historically provided funding, logistics, and campaign support — and whether the party can reconcile national rules with the distinct realities of its external branches.
