The 2024 Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says the party did not lose its presidential bid because of his religious background.
According to him, claims of such correlations are false, describing them as mere propaganda.
Relying on data at his disposal, he indicated that the numbers show he even performed better than some Christian parliamentary candidates of the NPP.
Addressing party supporters at the party headquarters, Dr. Bawumia explained that his analysis of the election data and results of other research suggests that the claims were nothing but propaganda.
“If you look at it, we were ten (10) contestants that went for the primaries. I was one Muslim, nine Christians, but the NPP voted for the Muslim presidential candidate. So that could not be the case. I decided to do some data analysis to test this hypothesis.”
“The data is very clear. In many constituencies across the country, the NPP presidential candidate performed better than the Christian parliamentary candidates. So it couldn’t be if they were voting because of religion, I shouldn’t be performing better than the Christian parliamentary candidates,” he said.
In the December 7, 2024 Presidential elections, the NPP’s flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia polled 4,877,611 votes (41.75%) against his key contender John Mahama of the NDC who got 6,591,790 (56.42%).
Former Majority Leader and leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu speaking about the party’s defeat at the elections revealed President Akufo-Addo had been cautioned in 2017 by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II about the dangers of allowing Ghanaians to become “hungry and angry.”
He noted that this warning was ignored, and economic struggles following COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war negatively impacted the party’s fortunes.
Additionally, perceptions of corruption, President Akufo-Addo’s leadership style – viewed as rigid and single-minded – and accusations that the government was controlled by his family further alienated voters.
There were also concerns that Dr Bawumia was too closely associated with the President and, being a Mamprusi, was linked to conflicts in the North, particularly in Bawku.
Another major concern was the perception that the Ashanti region, a traditional stronghold of the NPP, had been neglected in terms of infrastructure development.
This created a disconnect between the regional and constituency levels of the party.
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Dr. Bawumia says, as a Muslim, he performed better than many of the Christian parliamentary candidates, including Reverend Ntim Fordjour — dismissing claims that the party lost because of his faith.#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/o6MCsMVb25
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) April 23, 2025
