The Electoral Commission (EC) on Friday declared the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the winner of the 2016 elections.
The chairman of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, who declared the results, commended Nana Akufo-Addo for his victory.
The NPP Flagbearer finally secured the presidency after a third time, beating the incumbent, President John Mahama with 5, 716, 026, representing 53.85 per cent of valid votes cast.
Nana Akufo-Addo has become Ghana’s fifth president under the fourth Republic.
President Mahama, who ran on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), secured 4,713,277 votes, representing 44.40 of valid votes cast.
His defeat makes him the first incumbent to lose an election since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992.
The EC chair announced that the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward Mahama, had 22,214 votes (0.21) percent, the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, had 16,878 (0.16 per cent) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, had 105, 682 ((1 per cent). Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, Convention People’s Party (CPP), had 25,395 (0.24 per cent) and the independent candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah, received 10,781,609, (0.15).
She said total votes cast was 10,761,609, out of 15,712,499 names on the voters’ register, representing 68 per cent turnout.
Nana Akufo-Addo had already acknowledged the concession of other contenders to the official declaration of results by the EC.
They are Dr. Mahama, Nana Konadu Dr. Nduom, Jacob Osei Yeboah, all called him Nana Akufo-Addo to concede the election.
15, 712, 499 persons were registered to vote in this election across 28, 992 polling stations across the 275 constituencies.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the second candidate to have won the presidency after contesting for the third time.
The late President John Atta Mills also won the seat on the third attempt.
Nana Akufo-Addo comes from a rich political heritage with three of the iconic Big Six, the founding fathers of Ghana, being his relatives. They were J. B. Danquah, his grand-uncle; William Ofori-Atta, his uncle, and Edward Akufo-Addo, the third Chief Justice of Ghana and later the ceremonial President of the Republic from 1969 to 1972 as his father.
Nana Akufo-Addo himself, aged 72, has already served Ghana as the Attorney General and as Foreign Minister in the John Kufuor-led NPP government from 2000 to 2008. Unlike the 2012 election campaign where the Nana Akufo-Addo and his party campaigned on a platform of educational reform with the free SHS promise, the Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign for the presidency was on the back of a promise address unemployment and job creation with the NPP’s 2016 manifesto themed “Change: An agenda for jobs”.
Geroge Agyemang
