Ghana’s Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has accepted defeat in Saturday’s election and congratulated the opposition candidate, former President John Mahama, on his victory.
“The people have voted for change,” said Bawumia.
The elections come amid the country’s worst economic crisis in a generation, which saw the country default on its debt.
Despite Bawumia’s concession, no official results have been declared.
The Electoral Commission (EC) said results had been delayed because supporters of the two main parties were impeding the process and it had asked the police to clear the collation centres.
Mahama’s supporters have taken to the streets to celebrate in its northern stronghold of Tamale, the central city of Kumasi and the capital, Accra.
Bawumia said he was basing his statement on internal tallies from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He said these showed Mahama had won “decisively”, while the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had also won the parliamentary election.
Mahama confirmed that Bawumia had called to congratulate him on his “emphatic victory”.
The NDC earlier said that its internal results showed Mahama had won 56% of the vote against 41% for Bawumia.
The vice-president said he was accepting defeat before the official announcement of the results “to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country”.
President Nana Akufo-Addo is stepping down after reaching the official limit of two terms in office.
Mahama, 65, previously led Ghana from 2012 until 2017, when he was replaced by Akufo-Addo. Mahama also lost the 2020 election so this victory represents a stunning comeback.
Since the return of multi-party politics to Ghana in 1992, only candidates from either the NDC or the NPP have won the presidency.
No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in power – a trend that looks set to continue.
Mahama’s previous time in office was marred by an ailing economy, frequent power-cuts and corruption scandals.
However, Ghanaians hope it will be different this time round.
In Tamale, NDC supporter Gajia One told the BBC: “We handed over to them [NPP] and thought they could manage the country well, but they have failed, and we take over again.”
“John Mahama is the right man to rule this country. We are fed up.”
(BBC News)
