A claim by an aide to Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that the 2024 NPP presidential candidate “mobilised more votes than any first-time NPP candidate except Akufo-Addo” has been challenged as a distortion of electoral history and statistics.

According to political analyst and UP Tradition Institute founder, Dr. Razak Kojo Opoku, the statement fails to withstand scrutiny when examined against historical voting data for the New Patriotic Party’s first-time presidential contenders.

Dr. Opoku also questioned the aide’s framing of Bawumia as having “inherited an economic mess,” noting that the NPP government in which Bawumia served as Vice-President and Head of the Economic Management Team was re-elected in 2020.

“In effect, he inherited the economic challenges from the same administration he was part of,” Dr. Opoku stated.

Using official Electoral Commission data, Dr. Opoku compared the raw vote counts of past first-time NPP presidential candidates:

2024: Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia secured 4,877,611 votes (41.75%) against NDC candidate John Mahama’s 6,591,790 votes, losing by 1,714,179 votes.

1992: Prof. Albert Adu Boahen, running after 20 years in opposition, polled 1,204,764 votes (30.29%), losing to Jerry John Rawlings by 1,118,371 votes.

1996: John Agyekum Kufuor, contesting after 24 years of opposition, garnered 2,834,878 votes (39.67%), losing to Rawlings by 1,264,880 votes.

Dr. Opoku argued that raw numbers, not percentages, should form the basis for evaluating performance.

By this measure, both Adu Boahen and Kufuor suffered smaller defeat margins than Bawumia, despite contesting from opposition positions rather than as incumbents.

The analysis also notes that only Nana Akufo-Addo’s 2008 performance as a first-time candidate — losing by just 40,586 votes — stands out as superior under comparable circumstances.

Further, Dr. Opoku compared Bawumia’s showing with other first-time vice-presidents who ran for president:

Prof. John Atta Mills lost in 2000 by 881,139 votes.

John Mahama won in 2012 by 325,863 votes.

Bawumia’s 2024 loss margin of 1,714,179 votes was the largest among them.

Dr. Opoku warned against “whitewashing” the scale of the 2024 defeat by comparing it to NPP losses in 1992 and 1996 — elections fought after decades in opposition.

He stressed that the 2024 outcome represented a significant setback for the party at both the presidential and parliamentary levels, requiring unity and strategic change ahead of the 2028 elections.

“Our 2024 defeat is a shared responsibility,” he concluded. “If we are to win in 2028, we must present the choice preferred by the majority of Ghanaians.”