“Religion wasn’t a factor”: Bawumia rejects claims about NPP 2024 Election loss

Former Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has refuted claims that the party’s electoral defeat in 2024 was due to his religious background as a Muslim, describing the claims as “propaganda.”

Speaking at the NPP headquarters in Accra on Wednesday ahead of the party’s nationwide thanksgiving tour, Dr Bawumia said the allegations were not only unfounded but also contradicted both party dynamics and post-election research findings.

“Some people said that they didn’t vote for us because our presidential candidate was Muslim. Have you not heard that? When I heard that, I said this doesn’t make sense. This is not the Ghana that I know,” Dr Bawumia remarked.

He pointed out that during the NPP’s internal presidential primaries, he was the only Muslim among 10 aspirants—nine of whom were Christians—yet he emerged as the party’s choice for the presidential slot.

“So that could not be the case,” he argued. “And I decided to do some data analysis to test this hypothesis. And when you look at the data, it is very clear. In many constituencies across the country, the NPP presidential candidate performed better than the Christian parliamentary candidate. So it couldn’t be the case. If they were voting on religion, I shouldn’t be performing better than many of the party’s Christian parliamentary candidates.”

Dr Bawumia cited Assin South in the Central Region as an example, where he polled more votes than the NPP parliamentary candidate, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, a Christian clergyman.

“My good friend Rev Ntim Fordjour—he is a Reverend Father—but I did better than him in his constituency. He did so well and mobilised the votes for me and I thank him very much,” he added.

The former Vice President also drew attention to post-election studies conducted by independent institutions, which, he said, debunked the idea that religion or ethnicity played a decisive role in the outcome of the elections.

“Those issues have been ruled out in all the findings of different surveys that have been done,” he emphasised, stressing the need to rise above divisive narratives.

“So as a party and country, I’m very happy that religion and tribe have not entered our political discourse. We should therefore not allow people to play propaganda with religion and tribe. We are one nation. We will all live together whether we are Muslims or Christians; we will all work together for the good of this country,” Dr Bawumia concluded.

The NPP’s thanksgiving tour, scheduled to begin this weekend, is expected to bring together party faithful across the regions as part of efforts to reflect, rebuild, and reposition ahead of future political engagements.