Former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has condemned what he described as tribal and religious propaganda being deployed by some of his opponents in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearership contest.

Addressing the NPP New York 33rd Anniversary celebration on Sunday, August 24, Dr Bawumia warned that such divisive tactics were dangerous and risked branding the party as exclusionary.

He dismissed claims by some aspirants that the NPP lost the 2024 elections because of his northern and Muslim background, describing such suggestions as both false and desperate.

“The people playing the religion and tribal card clearly do not have a message. That propaganda is not only false but also dangerous for the NPP,” he told the gathering.

To buttress his point, Dr Bawumia cited the Professor Mike Oquaye report, which investigated the party’s 2024 defeat.

The study, he explained, showed that religion and tribe were not factors in voter behaviour.

Instead, nearly 80% of respondents attributed their voting decisions to disappointment with the government.

He added that his own presidential votes in 2024 surpassed those of several Christian parliamentary candidates in the party’s strongholds, disproving the claims of bias.

Dr Bawumia also rejected suggestions that the long-standing Mamprusi-Kusasi conflict in Bawku played a decisive role in the NPP’s defeat.

He presented election data dating back to 1965 showing that the NPP tradition has historically struggled to win seats in the Bawku zone, regardless of its presidential candidate.

“The Bawku conflict was not a factor in the outcome of the 2024 election. The data is clear,” he asserted.

He urged his competitors within the NPP to focus on policies, ideas and proven leadership records rather than attempting to sow disunity.

“If you want to contest me, come with a vision, come with your ideas, come with your track record, come with your integrity and let us decide,” he said.

“Your message cannot be that I am a Muslim, a northerner or a Mamprusi man. That is not the politics of the NPP.”