Ghana’s former President, John Dramani Mahama has made it back to power, defeating the candidate of the ruling part and the immediate past Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, in a presidential election on yesterday, December 7.
The defeat ended two terms in power for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) under President Nana Akufo-Addo, marked by worst economic crisis in years, involving high inflation and a debt default.
Reacting to the result of the election, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia and candidate of the ruling party conceded defeat and congratulated the winner.
He said: “the people of Ghana have spoken; the people have voted for change at this time and we respect it with all humility.”
Bawumia said that he called Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to congratulate him.
Earlier, NDC spokesman Sammy Gyamfi told reporters that the party’s internal review of results showed that Mahama won 56.3 percent of the vote against 41.3 percent for Bawumia.
“It is very clear the people of this country have voted for change,” Gyamfi said.
The vice president said Mahama won the presidency “decisively.”
Mahama, who was president of Ghana between July 2012 and January 2017, confirmed on X that he had received Bawumia’s congratulatory call over his “emphatic victory.”
Blaring horns and cheering, supporters of the 65-year-old Mahama 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 win marks a historic victory, making him the first president in the three decades of Ghana’s Fourth Republic – since the 1992 return to multi-party democracy – to reclaim the presidency after being voted out.
Ghana’s economic woes dominated the election after the gold and cacao producer went through a crisis of default and currency devaluation, ending with a $3bn International Monetary Fund bailout.
On corruption, Mahama vowed during the campaign that he will create a new office tasked with scrutinising government procurement above a $5m threshold.
He said that unchecked procurement processes are a major source of corruption.
But Mahama supported the anti-LGBTQ bill passed by Ghana’s parliament in February but is yet to be signed into law and has sparked international criticism.
Ghana’s election commission had said official results were likely due be released on Tuesday.
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.
