Nana Akomea, the Vice Chairman of the Dr Bawumia 2024 Campaign team, has revealed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had anticipated the outcome of the election months before the polls took place.
In an interview on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, Akomea disclosed that internal research conducted by the NPP in February 2024 indicated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, John Dramani Mahama, was ahead by ten percentage points.
Akomea acknowledged the fluctuations in the polls, commenting, “In February and March, the NDC was leading by about 10 percentage points, which was quite concerning.”
Akomea added “But by September, October, it had come down to about 2. And so we were very confident. It was a new momentum so we knew that there was going to be a lot of apathy, a lot of disgruntlement among our supporters.”
Despite the closing gap, which had instilled some hope, the final tally was a stark reminder of earlier predictions.
Mr. Akomea expressed the need for an investigation into the voter turnout, stating, “Anything else would just be a projection and so on. So we knew that the monthly poll showed us clearly [Mahama’s victory], and for a massive 2 million people to stay away, it’s really massive and we have to find out why.”
The Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Jean Mensa, officially declared the results on December 9, 2024, confirming John Dramani Mahama as the winner with 6,328,397 votes, or 56.55% of the total vote. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia followed in second place with 4,657,304 votes, representing 41.61% of the votes cast.
The substantial voter turnout difference and the wide margin of victory have prompted the NPP to seek answers in order to better understand the electorate’s sentiments and identify the factors that contributed to their defeat.
