THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been declared winner of the 2020 Presidential elections by the country’s electoral commission.
Nana Akufo-Addo of the governing NPP polled 6,730,413, representing 51.595% while his main opponent John Mahama of the NDC garnered 6, 214, 889 representing 47.366% in the country’s 8th election since the beginning of its 4th Republic in 1992. The total valid votes cast was 13,434,574 representing 79 per cent of the total registered voters.
“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, on the basis of the foregoing election results, and by the power vested in me as the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, and the Returning Officer of the presidential election, it is my duty and honour to declare Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as President-elect of the Republic of Ghana. May God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong, let peace reign,” the Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs Jean Mensa, said while declaring the results on Wednesday evening [9 December], 48 hours after the polls closed.
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The results follow a contentious poll that both candidates had said they were leading based on their camps’ tallies. Five people were killed in election violence since Monday, police said, marring what observers said was a well-organised vote.
Independent observers had congratulated Ghana for conducting largely peaceful polls, in line with its reputation as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies. The European Union’s chief observer, Javier Nart, told a news conference on Wednesday that “Ghanaians voted freely”.
Mahama (62) accused his rival of showing “credentials that are very undemocratic”. Akufo-Addo, he alleged, had harnessed the military in a bid to sway the outcome.
“You cannot use the military to try and overturn some of the results in constituencies that we have won. We will resist any attempts to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghanaian people,” the former president said on Tuesday.
Parliamentary results for the country’s 275 constituencies are yet to be announced, but are expected to be very close. Both parties are contesting some of the provisional results.
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. Both of those elections were determined by small margins.
Akufo-Addo, who is now in his second and last 4-year term in office, has pledged to implement an ambitious economic revitalisation programme to restore Ghana to the path of sustainable economic growth following the devastating effect of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Kola Tella
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