John Mahama wins as Mahamudu Bawumia accepts defeat

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 cost of basic goods shoot up, while young people struggled to get jobs and the country was unable to repay its debts.

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 around the country to celebrate, cheering, waving flags, blowing vuvuzelas and spinning motorbikes.

“I’m so excited for this victory,” Salifu Abdul-Fatawu told the BBC in the central city of Kumasi.

He said he hoped it would mean that he and his sibling would get jobs, while the price of food and fuel would come down.

Even NPP supporter Nana accepted that “my party is NPP, but whatever they did was not good.

“The system was so bad in an election year and so most people were not happy.”

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.”

Additional reporting by Natasha Booty