Former Vice President and 2024 flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has said the party’s defeat in the 2024 elections was largely self-inflicted.
The NPP, which entered the polls aiming to break the 8-year cycle of governance, lost by over 1.7 million votes to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama.
From holding 137 seats in Parliament, the party’s numbers dropped to just 88—losing nearly 50 seats to the now-ruling NDC, which currently commands almost a two-thirds majority in the House.
Speaking at the start of the party’s post-election Thank You tour at its headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, April 23, Dr. Bawumia said the NPP lost because about 2.1 million of its members failed to vote.
“We tried to do as much as we could, notwithstanding our hard work. However, we still suffered a heavy defeat. And when you look at what happened, you will see that it was internal—many of our supporters did not come out to vote. This is really, fundamentally, why we lost. 2.1 million of our supporters didn’t come out—2.1 million,” he said.
Dr. Bawumia noted that while the NPP’s votes dropped by 2.1 million compared to the 2020 elections, President John Mahama gained only a little over one hundred thousand votes.
He stressed that this situation can be reversed if the party regroups and re-engages its grassroots base.
“So the key to victory going forward is within the NPP. It is within ourselves—because we decided not to vote. So if we decide to vote, we will win. The key is ourselves,” he noted.
