Claim: Bawumia is the first presidential candidate to concede before EC announces results

Source: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

Verdict: False

Researched by Alfa Shaban

Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, claims his early concession of the 2024 presidential election sets a record as the first candidate to concede before the Electoral Commission (EC) officially declares.

Addressing some supporters at his residence on December 24, 2024, Dr Bawumia said his team was against an early concession, appealing to him to hold on to the move until the EC declares its results.

“There’s a first time for everything. For the interest of the peace and stability of our country, I will come out, I’ll be the first person to concede even before the EC comes out,” Bawumia told his team before conceding the elections 12 hours after polls closed on December 7, 2024.

This fact-check report seeks to verify if Dr Bawumia’s concession was a first under the Fourth Republic.

 

Fact-check

The December 7, 2000, election was the first time a president was set to transfer power after the mandatory two-term limit. The incumbent Jerry John Rawlings was hoping to hand over to his Vice President and National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Evans Atta Mills.

However, Mills’ main challenger, John Agyekum Kufuor (NPP), won the first round of voting by 48.4% against Mills’ 44.8%, but Kufuor failed to reach the 50% threshold hence the need for a second round slated for December 28.

On Friday, December 29, Atta Mills issued a statement congratulating Kufuor and said; “As an outgoing government, we pledge to make his transition into office as smooth as possible.” 

Despite the concession and Kufuor’s acknowledgement, the Kwadwo Afari Gyan-led EC declared final results the following day, December 30, 2000, a Pan African News Agency report indicated. 

Roll on the years, in 2016 when incumbent John Dramani Mahama lost to opposition candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Mahama conceded to Akufo-Addo, as disclosed on social media.

Fig 1 – Screenshot of Akufo-Addo’s tweet about Mahama’s concession in 2016

It was after this concession call that the Charlotte Osei-led EC announced the final results of the elections as shared by JoyNews on its YouTube channel at 8:47 PM on December 9, 2019. 

Subsequently, the EC posted the results per Facebook data at 09:28 PM with the corresponding post on Twitter (now X) at 09:38 PM.

Verdict:

From the above, NPP’s Mahamudu Bawumia is not the first to concede elections before the EC’s declaration. Therefore, the claim is false.

We have reached out to Kwabena Krobea Asante, digital media lead of the Bawumia 2024 campaign. This script will be updated as and when we get a response from him about our findings.

AS/TA/GD