Ghana Opposition Claims Victory in Presidential Election
The opposition in Ghana claimed on Sunday that provisional results showed their candidate, John Mahama, won the weekend presidential election, despite the fact that electoral authorities maintained they were still collating official tallies.
Saturday’s election was a showdown between National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate Mahama and incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who sought to separate himself from dissatisfaction with government policies and rising living costs.
Ghana’s troubled economy overshadowed the election, as the west African gold and chocolate exporter faced debt default, devaluation, and rising inflation, resulting in a $3 billion IMF bailout.
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Voters were selecting a successor to Bawumia’s boss, President Nana Akufo-Addo, who will leave down after serving a maximum of two four-year terms. They also elect a new parliament.
According to NDC spokesman Sammy Gyamfi, the party’s internal findings show Mahama received 56.3 percent of the vote against Bawumia’s 41.3 percent.
Gyamfi stated, “It is clear that the people of this country voted for change.”
Local station ChannelOne TV reported its findings, which included 42 of Ghana’s 276 seats, showed Mahama ahead of Bawumia.
Political parties have agents stationed at each polling station to watch and count the initial vote counts before the ballots are delivered to the electoral commission for official collation.
Earlier, Commission Deputy Commissioner Bossman Asare told reporters that tallying was still proceeding and regional results had not to arrive at the national center.
The commission had said official results were likely due by Tuesday.
Bawumia was also due to speak to the media on Sunday.
Voting went ahead mostly in calm. But one person was shot dead in the north, while another was shot and killed in the central region, Ghana police said.
With a history of democratic stability, Ghana’s two main parties, the NPP and NDC, have alternated in power equally since the return to multi-party politics in 1992.
Using the slogan “Break the 8″—a reference to two terms in power—Bawumia aimed to lead the NPP to an unprecedented third term. However, he failed to move away from criticism of Akufo-Addo’s economic record.
Though inflation has slowed from more than 50% to roughly 23%, and other macroeconomic indicators are stabilizing, economic hardships remain a major electoral concern for many.
That frustration paved the ground for Mahama to mount a return campaign, having served as president from 2012 to 2017 but failing twice in subsequent presidential runs.
AFP
