Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has revealed he rejected advice from his team not to concede defeat early in the 2024 elections.
According to Dr. Bawumia, some of the people on his team were saying you can’t go out to concede and stated they didn’t know if all data was right.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia conceded defeat some days before the EC chair Jean Mensa officially declared the 2024 election results, with many Ghanaians praising him for his statesmanship, some NPP members were not too pleased with his early concession.
Speaking to a group of people gathered at his residence Dr. Bawumia detailed, “Even though the Electoral Commission had not yet pronounced, in fact, some of my people in my team were saying you can’t go out to concede, we don’t know if all this data is right, let’s wait. And all of that. I said, look, we know this data is right from our own system, you know, so if you wait, you build up more tension and violence could come because people would think we are trying to rig the election”.
“Because that is the message that is coming, that we are trying to rig the election. But nobody has ever conceded an election without the EC coming out to pronounce. And I said there’s a first time for everything”, he stated.
Dr. Bawumia further emphasized, “For the interest of the peace and stability of our country, I will come out, I’ll be the first person to concede even before the EC comes out,” he added.
“And so, at 9 am I came out and I conceded right here where we are standing. I spoke to the country, I said that I believe that in the interest of peace and security, our democracy and also our economic environment, any violence discourages investors from coming to this country and it only encourages the terrorists around our sub-region to come here because there is instability, and this is not what God has for Ghana. God wants a peaceful Ghana”, he reiterated.
Meanwhile, reports going round on social media platform X have suggested the Electoral Commission has gazetted the results for the 2024 presidential election.
The results posted on social media claimed John Mahama of the NDC secured 57.7% while Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of the NPP secured just 38.2% in the recent December polls.
