Gabby Otchere-Darko, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) and a prominent member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has attributed the party’s defeat in the 2024 general elections to a broader global political trend rather than purely domestic factors.
Describing the outcome as “quite shocking,” Mr Otchere-Darko said the results should be understood within the context of a shifting “zeitgeist” – the spirit of the time – that has produced unexpected electoral upsets in several democracies worldwide in recent years.
Speaking on The Upside Down Show on Channel One TV on Sunday, February 1, 2026, he noted that similar surprising results have occurred across major political landscapes.
“You know what I’ve noticed over the last few years? There have been some shocking results across the world,” he said.
He cited examples from the United States, where Donald Trump secured a wider margin of victory in 2024 despite receiving fewer votes than in 2020, and the United Kingdom, where the Labour Party achieved a historic seat majority despite a relatively modest share of the popular vote.
On the African continent, Mr Otchere-Darko pointed to the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in decades, as well as political shifts in Botswana and other nations.
“In South Africa, we saw what happened to the ANC for the first time – they lost their majority. We saw it across, whether it was in Botswana, across the world,” he said.
He described the global pattern using the German term “zeitgeist,” explaining: “I think it was really, as the Germans would call it, the zeitgeist – the time and the spirit of the moment.”
According to him, viewing Ghana’s 2024 election results against this international backdrop makes the outcome more comprehensible, even if it caught many in the NPP by surprise.
“So I think if you look at it from that perspective and you see what happened elsewhere, then you can understand it. But of course, the results were quite shocking,” he stated.
In the December 2024 polls, the NPP, led by then Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, garnered 41.06 per cent of the total valid votes, while National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer John Dramani Mahama won decisively with 57.95 per cent, returning the NDC to power after eight years in opposition.