The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the just-ended December 7, 2024, general election, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has given details of some of the events that led to his concession speech, less than 12 hours after the election.
Speaking to a gathering in a viral video clip sighted by GhanaWeb, Dr. Bawumia, the current Vice President of Ghana, narrated how he rejected the advice of some members of his campaign team not to concede defeat.
He indicated that the said team members told him that nobody had ever conceded defeat in the country’s presidential election before the declaration of the election results by the Electoral Commission of Ghana.
But he told them that if that had never been done before, he would be the first person to do it in the interest of the country.
Bawumia asserted that he conceded defeat early to quell assertions that the election was being rigged, which could have led to violence.
“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. 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 said.
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.”
Watch Bawumia’s remarks in the video below:
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