Ghana presidential candidate speaks months after election

The former vice president of Ghana, Mahamudu Bawumia, has said that he conceded to John Mahama in the 2024 presidential election in the interest of national peace.

Bawumia was the candidate of the then-ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) while Mahama, who won the election, was standard-bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Bawumia had polled 42.64 percent with 738,493 votes before conceding to Mahama who had garnered 976,644 votes, representing 56.39 percent at the time.

Final results saw Mahama garnering 56.55 percent of the votes cast, while Bawumia secured 41.6 percent.

Speaking at the national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria on Monday, the former vice-president said his decision to concede was arrived at after he sensed that tension was mounting.

Mahama had built his campaign around restoring the economic prosperity Ghana enjoyed during his first stint.

Bawumia said vote tallied by his party indicated that Mahama “decisively” won the election before the electoral body announced the final results.

“I was confident in Ghana’s electoral process, as the Electoral Commission had demonstrated fairness and transparency,” Bawumia, who was hoping to become Ghana’s first Muslim president, said in Abuja.

“In addition to this, I was confident of winning the election on December 7th based on the solid record of achievement of our government, notwithstanding the economic challenges.

“However, when the polls closed and counting began, we started receiving the results from our party’s collation centres across the country.

“By 3am on Sunday, it was obvious from the data that my opponent, former President Mahama, had decisively won the election.

“I knew it would take between 48-72 hours for the electoral commission to announce the official results.

“I was cognisant of the tension and potential violence that could result if there was a long-drawn-out process of announcing the results.

“Indeed, the tension had begun to mount. I therefore took the decision to hold a press conference at 9am the next morning to concede the election to my opponent even before the EC had announced any collated official results.

“I was very confident that our data collation was correct. I believed that my concession within 14 hours of the close of polls was in the supreme interest of Ghana’s democracy and peace. The people had decided, and we had to respect their decision without equivocation.”

Bawumia’s actions earned him commendations from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and from civil society organisations.