John Boadu
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on the defeated presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, to graciously concede defeat and stop deceiving Ghanaians that he, rather, won the elections.
According to the NPP, the NDC Presidential Candidate knew very well that he lost the presidential election but wanted to court the sympathy of NDC supporters by claiming that he won so that he would be given another chance in 2024 to run again as the party’s presidential candidate.
The General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, who made these known at a press conference yesterday, asked former President Mahama to do the honourable thing by graciously conceding defeat and stop giving false hope to his supporters that he won and also prevail on his supporters to stop perpetrating needless post-election violence across the country.
“We in the NPP want to call on the National Peace Council, National House of Chiefs and Civil Society Organization (CSO) to impress upon the defeated Presidential Candidate of the NDC, John Mahama, to graciously concede defeat.”
He said if Mr. Mahama has any problem with the election results he could proceed to court to seek redress
He said per the official results of the general elections as declared by the Electoral Commission (EC), President Nana Akufo-Addo beat Mr. Mahama, his closest contender, with a staggering 517,231 votes which had never been achieved by any sitting President seeking re-election.
“In fact in 2012, former President Mahama won the disputed elections with about 326,000 votes while late President John Atta Mills also won the 2008 general elections with just 40,000 votes but the difference in the 2020 general elections was very clear,” he said.
The NPP General Secretary therefore challenged Mr. Mahama to make public the exact votes cast for him to make him the winner of the just ended general elections.
“How can Mr. Mahama say that all the media houses that called the elections in favour of President Nana Akufo-Addo – CODEO, European Union Observer’s Mission as well as the EC – all got it wrong that he was defeated in the elections?”
The NPP General Secretary also made it known that currently the NPP has the majority in Parliament with 137 seats while the NDC has 136 seats.
According to him, the NPP is very optimistic of winning the Sene West seat in the Bono East Region, which is outstanding now, to bring their seats to 138, with the remaining one seat being held by an independent candidate.
“Ghanaians have given President Nana Akufo-Addo an overwhelming second term even though we lost some of our seats, and so we have started the process of forming the next government by announcing our transitional team,” he said.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr