Media bias and low voter turnout caused our disappointing defeat

Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has expressed his disappointment over the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) recent defeat in the just-ended 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary polls, citing media bias and low voter turnout as key catalysts.

Speaking to party communicators who paid a courtesy call on him, the Vice President who doubled as the NPP Presidential Candidate in the 2024 General Elections highlighted that their data suggests that well over 2 million NPP supporters refused to vote for numerous reasons, including what some called a disappointing performance from the party over the last four years.

He noted that key media houses in the country were not supportive of their party’s agenda, which he believes had a profoundly negative impact on their chances of winning.

“It was a big disappointment; there was no doubt about it when the results came because all the work we had done pointed to the fact that we were winning this election. I mean, there was clear evidence on the grounds as to all the 270 constituencies.

“It was clear that we were going to do well, but on the day of the election, something was amiss, the turnout was so low. Everybody was wondering what was happening, why, and where our people were. And that was from Axim all the way to Zebilla, everybody was asking where our people were”, he stated.

“It turned out that everybody decided to stay, that they wouldn’t vote. And it was almost as if they had a meeting and decided on the message. The same message, no matter which constituency you went to, they would tell you they are not voting”, he highlighted.

The Vice President praised the communication team for their outstanding efforts prior to and during the elections despite the challenges they faced due to the unsupportive stance some key media houses took against their campaign.

“I must say, we worked very hard, I am very proud of the communication team, we were working against their ownership of, or support from key media houses. Put that as a disadvantage in many ways in terms of communication. We had a lot of these key media houses who were not on our side”, he concluded.

By Novire Kuuyizie Francis.