The 2024 Running Mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as NAPO, has attributed the party’s loss in the 2024 general elections to governance-related issues, and voter apathy, while rejecting claims that economic mismanagement played a significant role.
Speaking on Channel One TV on January 13, 2025, Dr. Prempeh emphasised that voter apathy, rather than economic dissatisfaction, was the primary reason for the party’s defeat.
“Voter apathy. Voter apathy affected both parties but affected NPP even more. When you analyse it, my party has sent the team around as an academic team. They’ll come up with only one answer which is governance issues. This current government governance issues.
“See, when people in your party are fed up with the way you are governing, they decide not to go to flock to the opposition. But they don’t even want to turn up to vote. So, if you’ve cared to listen, everywhere you go, sometimes in some places, who were even at the police station who were saying they’re not going to vote. It has never happened,” he said.
Dr. Prempeh pointed out instances where voters, including party supporters, openly expressed their unwillingness to participate in the polls, describing this as unprecedented in Ghana’s political history.
“If you do the diagnosis of every country in the world, when people have lost elections based on economic management, they go in droves to vote for the other party or abstinence. No, I’ll tell you the reason for abstinence. Everywhere citizens move in droves to support the opposition.
“Number one reason is economic. In Ghana, I’ll give you an example. In the US, Donald Trump lost an election. Even when he won the first time, he lost the popular vote, he won the electoral college. This time around, when he won, he won hugely on the popular vote at the electoral college. And the number one reason the base, America will tell you, they saw grocery prices going through the roof,” he noted.
The Electoral Commission (EC) has released updated results for the 2024 presidential election, with President John Dramani Mahama securing 56.42% of the votes from data across 275 out of the 276 constituencies.
President Mahama garnered 6,591,790 votes, while his closest contender, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), received 4,877,611 votes, representing 41.75%.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
