President Akufo-Addo’s fight against illegal mining in the country was a contributory factor to the drastic drop in votes for the NPP in the 2020 general elections, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said.

According to him, per the voting pattern and observations made by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), people living in galamsey areas voted massively against both Akufo-Addo and parliamentary candidates who stood on the ticket of the NPP.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express show on Tuesday, the Information Minister said, “I hear people ask how come your margin dropped from 900,000 to 500,000? “We (NPP) are clear in our minds that the fight against galamsey is one of the reasons, if you look at the returns for many of the galamsey areas, they voted heavily against the president and his candidates because at the same time, while even internal party persons were sabotaging the fight, you also have people on the other side of the political divide,” he noted.

The Akufo-Addo-led administration in 2017 launched a campaign against illegal small-scale mining in the country to the extent of placing a temporary ban on their activities.

The NPP later set up Operation Vanguard taskforce to man various mining areas to prevent the activities of 'galamseyers'.

The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation also, later set up a Galamstop taskforce to support the Operation Vanguard team in the fight against galamsey.