Official results from Saturday’s Presidential election in Ghana have confirmed the victory of opposition candidate, former President John Mahama.
Mahama won with 56.6 percent against 41.6 percent for Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia. It is the biggest margin of victory in the country for 24 years.
Voter turnout was 60.9 percent, said the head of Ghana’s electoral commission, Jean Mensa.
Mahama, 65, previously led Ghana from 2012 until 2017, when he was replaced by Akufo-Addo. Mahama also lost the 2020 election.
Mahama’s NDC and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have alternated in power since the return of multi-party politics to Ghana in 1992.
No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in power – a trend that looks set to continue.
Mahama said he felt “humbled” that he and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) had “chalked one of the best results in the electoral history of Ghana”.
He vowed “a new beginning, a new direction” and noted that Ghana had “made history” by choosing its first female Vice-President, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.
He also thanked Bawumia for conceding, which he did a day after the election.
The Vice-President said he had accepted defeat before the official announcement of the results “to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country”.
Nevertheless, there was still some frustration that it took so long to announce the official results.
President Nana Akufo-Addo is stepping down after reaching the official limit of two terms in office.
Since Bawumia’s concession on Sunday, Mahama’s supporters have been celebrating across the country.
People have been cheering, waving flags, blowing horns and spinning motorbikes.
“I’m so excited for this victory,” Salifu Abdul-Fatawu told the BBC in the central city of Kumasi.
Although the election was generally peaceful, two people were shot dead on Saturday in separate incidents.
The electoral commission office in the northern town of Damongo was also destroyed, allegedly by NDC supporters angry at the delays in announcing the results.
BBC
