Mahama 'needs no pressure' to concede - Bawa-Mogtari

President John Mahama does not need to be pressured into conceding defeat to Nana Akufo-Addo if the Electoral Commission of Ghana declares the opposition leader as the president-elect per results of Wednesday’s general elections, Campaign Spokesperson for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joyce Bawa-Mogtari has said.

“Indeed, until the outcome of the election is actually put out there, I don’t see any reason why any of these groups will be calling on the president [to concede],” Mrs Bawa-Mogtari told Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Friday, 9 December in response to a question posed to him in connection with rumours that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Commonwealth Observer Mission leader Thabo Mbeki have separately called president Mahama on phone to concede to Mr Akufo-Addo, who has been projected as winner of the polls per provisional results.

“In any case, the president does not need to be called upon to do anything, the president knows what he is up to, and, indeed, the president is waiting for the mandated body to announce the results and then we take it from there.

“Indeed, I’ve just seen a tweet by President Mahama, he says: ‘Let’s allow the EC to carry out its constitutional mandate, we’ll make Ghana proud no matter the outcome’ … so, certainly he is not the sort of man that needs any pressure to be applied to him in whatever form or way and I’m sure that all the leaders you’ve mentioned know the kind of individual that president Mahama is,” Mrs Bawa-Mogtari added.

The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been mounting pressure on Mr Mahama to concede defeat to Mr Akufo-Addo just as has been done by their other five contenders Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, Dr Edmund Mahama, Mr Ivor Greenstreet and Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah.