[ad_1]
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo won a second term after a hotly contested presidential election, the country’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday, beating opposition John Mahama.
President and candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, addresses supporters during the last day of the campaign in James Town in Accra, on December 5, 2020. Image: AFP
ACCRA – Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo won a second term after a hotly contested presidential election, the country’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday, beating opposition John Mahama.
Akufo-Addo, from the center-right New Patriotic Party (NPP), received 6,730,413 or 51.59% of the vote, while Mahama, from the center-left National Democratic Congress (NDC), received 6,214,889 or 47.36% of the votes, said the chairman of the commission, Jean Adukwei Mensa.
Parliamentary results for the country’s 275 electoral districts have yet to be announced, but are expected to be very close. Both parties are challenging some of the interim results.
Mahama, 62, and Akufo-Addo, 76, are longtime rivals who have met at the polls twice before.
Mahama was president for four years until 2016, before being succeeded by Akufo-Addo. Both elections were determined by small margins.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, turnout was high on Monday, with 13,434,574 people voting or 79% of registered voters, according to the electoral commission.
While the vote was largely peaceful, five people were killed in election-related violence, police said Wednesday, casting a shadow over a country hailed for its stable democracy.
Ghana has had seven peaceful power transitions since the return to democracy more than 30 years ago, and post-election grievances have always been pursued through the courts, a rarity in the troubled region.
Download the EWN app on your iOS or Android device.
[ad_2]
