Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has emphasized the importance of retaining political power beyond the 2024 elections.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has couched the mantra 'Breaking the 8' to signify their intent to win the 2024 polls and to break the 8-year power rotation cycle between them and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) since 1992.

According to Ofori-Atta the conduct of upcoming parliamentary and presidential primaries will have a significant impact on whether or not the party can win the next elections.

He was speaking in an address after a recent visit to the NPP headquarters in Accra as part of efforts to bridge the gap between the party and government.

“The Minister for Finance thanked the party leadership for the warm reception and commended them... Hon. Ofori-Atta concluded his remarks by urging the party leadership to put in place adequate guidelines to ensure a smooth conduct of its parliamentary and presidential primaries as that is critical to the Party’s quest to win a-third consecutive general elections (break the eight),” a January 13 statement issued by the NPP said.

The party will in the coming months elect parliamentary candidates across the country as well as a presidential flagbearer to take over from president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo whose final term expires in January 2025.

The minister endured a challenging 2022 with a failing economy that triggered calls for his sacking from the opposition and members of civil society as well as a group of NPP lawmakers.

Ofori-Atta also came under sustained attacks after government opted to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at a time the cedi was suffering massive depreciation, inflation was galloping and the economy was suffering downgrades from rating agencies.

SARA/DO