By Pauline Kamiri
Nairobi County, Nairobi: The incumbent president of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addoh has been re-elected and declared the winner of Ghana’s election with 51.59% of the vote.
Jean Adukwei Mensa; the chairperson of the electoral commission of Ghana and the returning officer of the presidential election announced. John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress came in second with 47.36% of the valid votes cast.
Nana Akufo was facing off with his close political rival John Mahama of NDC and other 10 candidates.
Among the dozen candidates vying for the presidency were three women, including Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the widow of former President Jerry Rawlings, Brigitte Dzogbenuku, and Akua Donkor.
The December 7th Polling was generally free and fair as election observers termed it and were the eighth since Ghana’s first step to multiparty democracy in 1992.
Addoh in his manifesto has promised to implement a $17billion program to boost Ghana’s economy after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the price of key oil and cocoa exports, resulting in the first quarterly contraction in 40 years.
High public debt levels something Akufo-Addoh has to battle within his 4-year tenure. He will be under pressure to rein in government spending that has pushed the debt to GDP ratio past 70%and prompted warnings from the International Monetary fund. In April of 2020, the country got $1billion in emergency funding from IMF to address the impact of the pandemic, and the economy is now projected to grow as much as 1%
Corruption being a perennial issue in Ghana is also one of the key areas Ghanaians will be looking at to gauge Akufo Addoh’s regime. Transparency International in a recent study says that Ghana loses $3Billion each year to corruption.
He has also said that his scheme Free Senior High School will continue during his tenure and improve the already massive high school attendance. In his manifesto, he also pledged to build a new airport in the country’s region as well as continue with safe handling of the COVID-19 situation in his country with infections standing above 50,000 positive cases
