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Political analyst Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante has disputed the account presented by the presidential hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, concerning the party’s loss in the 2024 general elections.
During an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Wednesday, April 23, he claimed that the lack of turnout from their supporters was a purposeful protest vote.
His comments are in reaction to statements made by Dr. Bawumia at the NPP’s nationwide Thank You Tour launch, where he linked the party’s defeat to internal problems, notably the lack of turnout from their supporters at the polls.
Dr. Asah-Asante, nonetheless, argues that the absence of voter engagement should not be regarded as simple apathy but rather as a significant political statement from the party’s supporters.
He clarified that although these supporters did not physically vote, their absence signified a type of indirect voting — a deliberate choice to withdraw support as an indication of discontent with the party’s leadership or path.
“If they’ve gone to the field to pick data and introduce what their data is saying, fine. “But I hold a different view. In political science, when you expect 20 people to vote for you, and only 10 do, the remaining 10 have protested against you. It’s a protest vote.”
He encouraged the party to reflect more thoroughly on the causes of the defeat, particularly given the stark turnaround from the NPP’s substantial electoral win only four years prior, with a margin exceeding a million votes.
“They knew very well that even if they had gone, the numbers would have increased — and yet they stayed away. That action, in itself, is a vote against you. It’s not that they didn’t vote; they voted with their absence,” Dr. Asah-Asante noted.
He urged the party to conduct a more profound self-examination of the causes for the loss, particularly in light of the stark turnaround from the NPP’s major electoral triumph only four years prior, which had a margin exceeding a million votes.
“Why is it that the same group of people did not want them to stay in power? That’s the real question they should be asking,” he stated.
NKONKONSA.com
