Ghana: Mahama Declared Winner

by Topsy Oba

John Dramani Mahama: declared winner

President John Dramani Mahama has been declared the winner of last weekend’s election in Ghana, scoring 50.7 per cent and thus avoiding the need for a run up.

His hottest rival, Nana Akufo-Addo scored 47.7 per cent, the electoral commission said, amidst the allegation by Akufo-Addo’s party and supporters that the election was rigged for the incumbent.
The electoral commission announced the result after a day of twists and turns linked to the vote on Friday and Saturday, with the stakes especially high in a country with a booming economy fuelled partly by newly discovered oil.

Results compiled by local media had early Sunday pointed to a Mahama win, leading the opposition to strongly reject them, alleging fraud and claiming it had evidence that its candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, was the real winner.

According to the electoral commission, Mahama won with 50.70 percent of the votes cast, compared to Akufo-Addo’s 47.74 percent. With eight candidates in the race, more than 50 percent was needed to avoid a second-round runoff.

“I call on all leaders of all political parties to respect the voice of the people,” Mahama said in a victory speech in which he also urged restraint in celebrations and said he was overwhelmed.
“The voice of the people is the voice of God.”

Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party said in a statement that the results announced “by the evidence do not reflect the mandate of the required majority of the Ghanaian electorate.”
Party officials would meet Tuesday to decide the way forward, it said in a statement.
Turnout was put at more than 79 percent. Observers from the Commonwealth, West African bloc ECOWAS and local group CODEO all said the vote appeared peaceful and transparent.

The opposition however issued a scathing statement even before the official results were announced.
“Indeed, we have enough concrete evidence to show that the 2012 presidential election was won by our candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo,” it said.

“We have noticed a pattern of fraud, where substantial numbers of votes are either added to the NDC (National Democratic Congress) candidate or subtracted from the NPP presidential candidate.”
It demanded an audit of collated vote figures as well as of data from the biometric verification machines used in the election.