Former Ghana President John Mahama wins the election. political news
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia accepted defeat, congratulated former President John Mahama.
Ghana’s former President John Dramani Mahama has won the country’s presidential election after his main rival, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, conceded defeat.
“The people of Ghana have spoken, the people have voted for change at this time and we respect that with all humility,” Bawumia told a news conference on Sunday.
The defeat in Saturday’s election ended two terms in power for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by President Nana Akufo-Addo, marked by Ghana’s worst economic crisis in years, including high inflation and debt default. Is included.
Bawumia said he called Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to congratulate him.
Earlier, NDC spokesperson Sammy Gyamfi told reporters that the party’s internal review of the results showed that Mahama won 56.3 percent of the vote against Bawumia’s 41.3 percent.
“It is very clear that the people of this country have voted for change,” Gyamfi said.
The Vice President said that Mahama won the presidency “decisively”.
According to the NPP’s internal tally of votes, the NDC won the parliamentary election.
Mahama, who was President of Ghana between July 2012 and January 2017, confirmed on Twitter that he had received Bawumia’s congratulations on his “resounding victory”.
Blowing horns and cheering, the 65-year-old’s supporters were already gathering and celebrating outside the party campaign headquarters in the capital Accra.
During his campaign, he promised to “reset” the country on various fronts and tried to appeal to young Ghanaians.
His victory is a historic victory, making him the first president in three decades of Ghana’s Fourth Republic – since the return to multi-party democracy in 1992 – to regain the presidency after being voted out.
Ghana’s economic problems dominated the election after it suffered a gold and cocoa producer default and currency devaluation crisis, which culminated in a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.
On corruption, Mahama vowed during the campaign that he would create a new office tasked with investigating government procurement worth more than $5 million.
He said uncontrolled procurement processes were a major source of corruption.
But Mahama also expressed support for an anti-LGBTQ bill passed by Ghana’s parliament in February, but which has not yet been signed into law and which has drawn international criticism.
Ghana’s electoral commission had said official results were expected by Tuesday.
With a history of democratic stability, Ghana’s two main parties, the NPP and the NDC, have been equally in power since the return to multi-party politics in 1992.
