SAN FRANCISCO, December 10, (THEWILL) – Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has won a second term after a tightly contested presidential election, defeating long-time opponent, John Mahama.
Akufo-Addo of the centre-right New Patriotic Party (NPP) received 6,730,413 or 51.59% of votes while Mahama of the centre-left National Democratic Congress (NDC) received 6,214,889 or 47.36% of votes, the electoral commission’s chairperson Jean Adukwei Mensa said on Wednesday.
Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, EC, said Akufo-Addo secured 6,730,413 votes, or about 51.595% of total valid votes cast in all 16 regions of the country.
“By the powers vested in me as the returning officer of the presidential election, I hereby declare candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the duly elected president of the Republic of Ghana”, Mensah said.
Mrs Mensa said the election results declared excluded that of the Techiman South Constituency, with a voter population of 128,018, explaining that the results in that constituency were being contested.
“As such collation is not complete. The difference between the total number of votes between by the first and second candidates is 515,524 votes. Even if we added the said number to the results of the 2nd placed candidate, it would not change the outcome of the Presidential Election. Hence our declaration of the 2020 results without that of Techiman South.
“If we were to add the results from Techiman South Constituency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would obtain 50.8% of the votes and John Dramani Mahama, would obtain 47.873% of the votes”, she said.
Akufo-Addo will therefore be sworn into office on Jan. 7, for his second and final four-year term as president.
He won his first mandate in December 2016 after two previous unsuccessful attempts and has been president of Ghana since January 2017.
Mahama, 62, and Akufo-Addo, 76, are old rivals who have faced off at the ballot box twice before.
Mahama was president for four years until 2016, before being succeeded by Akufo-Addo.
Akufo-Addo has promised to implement a $17 billion programme to boost Ghana’s economy after the coronavirus pandemic hit the price of key oil and cocoa exports, resulting in the first quarterly contraction in nearly 40 years.
He will be under pressure to rein in government spending that has pushed the debt-to-GDP ratio past 70% and prompted warnings from the International Monetary Fund.
Ghana has had seven peaceful transitions of power since the return of democracy more than 30 years ago.
