ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Ghana’s vp and ruling occasion candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia, conceded defeat Sunday to opposition candidate and former President John Dramani Mahama within the West African nation’s presidential election seen as a vote of no-confidence within the present authorities’s dealing with of an ailing financial system.
Ahead of the official announcement, Bawumia instructed reporters that he respects the choice of Ghanaians to vote for change. “I’ve simply known as His Excellency John Mahama to congratulate him as president-elect of the Republic of Ghana,” he stated at his residence within the capital, Accra.
Previously president of Ghana between July 2012 and January 2017, Mahama, 65, acknowledged the decision from the ruling occasion candidate in a submit on the X platform, describing his victory as “emphatic.”
He had promised to “reset” the nation on varied fronts throughout a marketing campaign that largely appealed to younger Ghanaians who noticed the vote as a approach in a foreign country’s financial disaster.
Celebrations broke out among the many supporters of the opposition candidate in elements of the nation, together with the capital metropolis. Wearing the opposition occasion’s white, inexperienced, pink and black colours, ladies and younger individuals danced to music and trumpet blasts on the streets and on the occasion’s nationwide headquarters
The election for each the president and members of the parliament was held towards the backdrop of the nation’s worst cost-of-living disaster in a era and was seen as a litmus check for democracy in a area shaken by extremist violence and coups.
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Bawumia was operating because the flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party, or NPP, which has struggled to resolve the financial disaster beneath outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo. Mahama’s National Democratic Congress additionally gained the bulk within the parliament, he stated.
Mahama’s win is considered as following the most recent pattern of elections all over the world, favoring opposition events towards incumbents, from the United States to European international locations — reminiscent of Britain and France — in addition to South Africa.
The former president is “the one particular person” who can repair the ailing financial system in Ghana, considered one of West Africa’s financial powerhouses, stated Jude Agbemava, a coverage analyst who voted for him.
Like in most different elections in international locations the place the incumbent misplaced, the vote in Ghana was concerning the individuals making their disaffection recognized towards a authorities that has misplaced goodwill, stated Seidu Alidu, head of the division of political science at Ghana’s University of Legon.
“I believe it has to do with the financial system, which is essentially a bread and butter difficulty for each Ghanaian,” stated Alidu. “When the individuals elect you, they require you to do sure issues for them. But it was additionally concerning the fashion of governance (as a result of) even in different international locations going through financial challenges, governments have been being trustworthy with the individuals, telling them what the truth is, and the steps they’ve taken to handle it,” he added.
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Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria
