Dr. Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, the National Coordinator for the OAK for President movement supporting New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer aspirant Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has squarely attributed the party’s significant defeat in the 2024 general elections to former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Dr. Boakye-Danquah contended that Dr. Bawumia failed to effectively leverage his expertise as an economist to articulate “the necessary evils and decisions” the previous administration was compelled to make to ensure economic stability.
He asserted that Dr. Bawumia must therefore accept full and complete responsibility for the outcome, absolving others within the party of blame for the electoral loss.
Specifically, the Coordinator referenced the controversial Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), which he described as a necessary intervention the NPP government had to implement. However, he argued that the party’s presidential candidate, widely presented as an economic expert, failed to adequately explain the necessity of the measure to the public and those directly affected.
Dr. Boakye-Danquah also drew a comparison between the NPP’s performance under previous flagbearers and the 2024 results, noting a substantial reduction in the party’s winning margin under Dr. Bawumia’s leadership compared to the victories achieved by former Presidents Kufuor and Akufo-Addo.
He stated that the NPP, under President Akufo-Addo, secured a voter base of 6,730,413 votes in 2020. However, he claimed that Dr. Bawumia’s campaign only managed to secure approximately 4.7 million votes, representing a decline of roughly 2 million votes.
“That signifies a reduction of 2 million votes; the party clearly lacked confidence in the candidate,” Dr. Boakye-Danquah argued. “The parliamentary candidates collectively secured 5,217,257 votes. Had we merely retained the number of votes President Akufo-Addo secured in 2020, we would currently be the governing party.”
He further criticized Dr. Bawumia, stating that the party must hold him accountable, pointing to the fact that the candidate conceded defeat before the electoral process was officially concluded. “To go into an election and have a candidate accept defeat before the process is formally over demonstrates a profound weakness,” he stated.
Dr. Boakye-Danquah reiterated: “The results of the 2024 elections were poor, and I lay the blame on the leader and flagbearer. He lost 2 million votes regardless of the challenges we faced. As an economist, he could not even explain to the middle class why the DDEP was a necessary evil. We had to implement stringent measures as the economy was at a standstill, yet our leader failed to convince Ghanaians of the critical importance of the DDEP.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
