Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has revealed that his campaign team initially opposed his decision to concede defeat in the December 7 election.
Despite their objections, Dr. Bawumia announced his concession on December 8, shortly after vote counting began. The following day, the Electoral Commission declared John Dramani Mahama the winner, securing 6,328,397 votes, equivalent to 56.55% of the valid ballots cast.
Addressing party supporters at his residence on Thursday, December 26, Dr. Bawumia explained that his early concession was motivated by a desire to uphold Ghana’s peace and stability.
“So, even though the Electoral Commission had not yet pronounced [the winner], 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. But 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 was coming, that we were trying to rig the election.
“But nobody has ever conceded an election without the EC coming out to pronounce, and I said there is a first time for everything.”
