The most tense moments of the just ended election occurred during the early hours of December 8, as counting was underway but no real results had been released yet.
That was the moment the NPP held a press conference to claim they had collated figures from a majority of constituencies which told them they were heading towards a victory.
The NDC, which had earlier released a statement calling on their supporters to disregard results showing them losing as they were in a ‘comfortable lead’ – continued maintaining defiance throughout the next day that they were indeed, in a comfortable lead.
It was obvious it was a tactic at the time and it’s something the party has now admitted, through Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye.
Speaking on Starr Fm, he said that they realised their supporters would not be able to deal with the crushing sense of loss, therefore the ‘comfortable lead’ strategy was to keep their frustrations at bay.
“Let me say that it was strategic. I’ve come to see that it was strategic. We have what we call the boomerang effect; when the expectations of people are so high, if you are not careful and you don’t manage the expectation, and their frustration comes in, they could vent,” Nii Lante, who won his race for reelection in Odododiodio, said.
He added: “’We’re in a comfortable lead’ is to “assuage the frustration of the supporters. [It was] to minimize their frustration because the anger that would have come with the straight [admittance] that we have lost, people would have committed suicide.
“Even with this, we have reports of people committing suicide. Yes, I’ve heard of about three across the country. People could just not stand it… Even me, I broke down.” he added.

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