Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been given a fresh mandate to govern the country for the next four years.
The country’s Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday declared him winner of Monday’s presidential election The incumbent, who contested the election on the platform of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), won with 6,730,413 votes, which represents 51.59 per cent of the valid votes cast.
His closest opponent, John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) polled 6,214,889 votes (47.36 per cent).
But, Akufo-Addo urged NPP’s supporters to be “moderate and sensitive” in jubilation.
In a Facebook post, the President wrote: “When you win an election, you don’t need to be aggressive. Be of good character and wait for the Electoral Commission to declare. And when you jubilate, be moderate and sensitive to public order and safety.”
The total votes cast was 13, 434,574, representing 79 per cent of the total registered voters.
EC Chairperson Mrs. Jean Mensa, who declared the results on Wednesday evening – about 48 hours after the polls closed, described the elections as “incident free” and “peaceful”.
She said the technology deployed on Election Day worked efficiently and effectively, insisting that the usual hustle and long queues at polling stations in past elections were all absent.
Mahama had on Tuesday, expressed appreciation to the country’s electorate “for voting for change”.
In a post, Mahama claimed that his party won the majority of parliamentary seats in the elections.
“Thank you for voting for change and giving the NDC a working majority in the next Parliament. Thank you Ghana,” he tweeted.
He was not available for reaction on Wednesday evening as at the time of going to the press.
But, Head of the ECOWAS Observer Mission Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf yesterday called on African countries to emulate Ghana’s example of conducting free, fair and transparent elections.
“It is pleasing to know that Ghana has lived up to its expectations in the conduct of elections in a free, fair and credible manner,” Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said in a statement on Wednesday.
She said a peaceful transfer of power in Ghana is a great opportunity for not just Ghana but for the whole of Africa.
She, therefore, called on African countries to emulate Ghana, which is a model for Africa, to instill the much-needed confidence in the electoral systems in their various countries.
Heads of election observer missions in attendance at the meeting included the African Union Election Observation Mission, the Commonwealth Observer Group, the National Democratic Observation Mission (NDI), which oversees the activities of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) as well as the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).
Also in attendance was a United Nations (UN) delegation led by the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).
Five people were killed and a dozen injured in violence related to the presidential and legislative elections held on Monday, according to the police.
Twenty-one violent outbreaks were identified as election-related across the West African country. It urged calm as the nation awaits results.
However, hundreds of opposition supporters demonstrated yesterday at the EC buildings in the capital, Accra, demanding that the election results be announced quickly.
