Vice-President of the Republic and New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate hopeful, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called out his opponents for peddling lies about him ahead of the 4 November 2023 presidential primaries of the ruling party.

Dr Bawumia said his opponents have adopted the “if you miss the ball, don’t miss the man” tactics following the results of the special electoral college elections held on Saturday 26 August 2023

The vice-president won a clear victory, polling 68.15% of the total valid votes cast.

Bawumia noted that because his opponent missed the ball (failing to win the special electorate college polls), they have decided to attach him (the man) for coming tops in the special electoral college polls.

The vice-president while addressing NPP delegates in the Tatale-Sanguli constituency in the Northern Region today, Tuesday 24 October 2023 as part of his campaign ahead of the NPP’s flagbearership contest, noted that there are three lies he has heard being told against him by his opponents to cause disaffection and division in the party.

“We are about to make history in our party and in this country. Unfortunately, the way the results of the super delegates came, many of our opponents are confused and they are seeing a looming defeat on 4 November, and because of that, they have decided to adopt some new tactics.

“The new tactic is [that], if you miss the ball, don’t miss the man, that is the new tactics that they are adopting. They have decided to spread lies to bring disunity amongst us and create problems between chairmen and constituency executives, with polling station executives and electoral area coordinators, they want to knock our heads together” Dr Bawumia said.

“They say I have given all constituency chairmen, 275 constituency chairmen a hundred thousand cedis (GHc 100,000.00), and a pick-up. Have you seen any pick-up here for your chairman? This is just a ridiculous lie” Vice-President Bawumia added.

On what he says is the second lie he has heard about him, the Vice President said he has heard his opponents say that he will not allow in the future, polling station executives and electoral area executives to vote in the presidential elections.

“How can this happen? It is not possible for me to stop polling station executives and electoral area coordinators from voting. This was a national conference decision and I was very supportive of expanding the electoral college to allow polling station executives and electoral area coordinators to vote and by the grace of God, they will continue to vote” the Vice President said.

“What I want to do is push for a new reform to allow electoral area coordinators to vote in the election of regional executives. So, we want to rather expand and include everybody. We don’t want to reduce and so that lie must be put to rest” Bawumia added.

The third lie he heard just this morning the vice-president said, is that he [Dr Bawumia] wants to say that all sitting MPs should go unopposed and that, no one should contest a sitting MP.

“How can I say that? The party’s constitution cannot even allow that. This party is stronger when we have democracy working and so, I will never say any sitting MP must go unopposed. There must be consensus in all constituencies and so that lie should be left alone” Dr Bawumia remarked.

“But as I have said, their tactic is that “if you miss the ball, don’t miss the man,” but as for this one, they will miss the man because we will not allow their lies to take root,” the Vice President and NPP presidential candidate hopeful, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra via Asaase Radio