Ghana’s President Mahama vows to respect election outcome

Supporters of the National Democratic Party dance and cheer as they wait the results of the General Elections outside incumbent President John Mahama’s house in Labone, yesterday. New Patriotic Party opposition challenger Nana Akufo-Addo (Inset) has a clear lead in Ghana’s hotly contested presidential election, local media reported, although official results have yet to be published. (PHOTO: AFP)

Ghana’s President John Mahama said that he will respect the outcome of the tightly contested election.

He also said in a tweet that the Electoral Commission should be allowed to carry out its mandate.
Local media reported that main opposition candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 72, had an unassailable lead.

Final results were expected before the end of yesterday.

The electoral commission announced on Thursday that it was manually verifying the results because its electronic system had been targeted by hackers.

In a tweet, it urged people to ignore the “fake results” circulating on social media.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate’s quest for a second term was facing a strong challenge from a revitalised New Patriotic Party (NPP).

A run-off will be held later in the month if neither of the two main candidates secures more than 50 per cent of the votes.

Delivering on his promise

The campaign was dominated by Ghana’s faltering economy.

In the previous election in 2012, Mr Mahama defeated Mr Akufo-Addo by less than 300,000 votes.

Defeat for Mr Mahama would make him the first incumbent to lose an election since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992.

He has been nicknamed “Mr Dumor”, a local word that refers to the power cuts that have blighted the country during his term, but on the campaign trial has been trying to convince Ghanaians that he is delivering on his promise of creating more jobs.

Mr Akufo-Addo has promised free high-school education and more factories, but his critics have questioned the viability of his ambitions.

The other four candidates include former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP), whose husband Jerry John Rawlings initially took power in the 1979 coup.

She is the first woman to run for president in the West African country.