Ghanaians came out enmass on Wednesday the 7th of December 2016 to cast their votes to elect a new president to pilot the affairs of the country. They also voted for parliamentarians that would represent their interest and make laws for the well being of the entire nation and her citizens.

A 72-year-old former foreign affairs Minister and candidate of the Opposition party New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo was declare winner beating the incumbent President John Mahama of National Democratic Congress (NDC) 53.8 percent to 44.4 percent to be declared winner of the election while the electorate voted 148 candidates of NPP to represent them in parliament as against 81 candidates of the ruling NDC.

Ghanaian electorate shunned the call made by Ekiti State governor Ayodele Fayose appealing to them never to vote for the opposition party urging them to take a cue from Nigeria as failure to vote for the incumbent president will be inviting recession as being experienced today in Nigeria.

Fayose’s plea fell on deaf ears as the people of Ghana knew better. They voted to change the present administration headed by John Mahama of NDC who narrowly defeated Nana Akufo-Addo in 2012 Ghanaian general election with 50.7 percent to 40.3 percent. Akufo-Addo challenged the result in court but the court upheld Mahama’s victory.

Just like the 2015 Presidential election in Nigeria where an opposition party won, Ghana’s Presidential election has produced an opposition party candidate defeating incumbent President in a keenly contested election devoid of violence and adjudged one of the freest and fairest elections in the history of Africa by election observers who were on ground to monitor the election.

Like president Muhammad Buhari who made four attempts at the seat of power, Nana Akufo-Addo made three attempts at Ghana’s number one seat and eventually got the mandate of the electorate. President John Mahama like Dr. Ebele Jonathan quickly conceded defeat before desperate politicians could sow seed of discord in the minds of the supporters of the National Democratic Congress which may eventually lead in to violence that will make the country ungovernable.

Nana Akufo-Addo won the presidential election becoming president elect at his third attempt and cementing the country’s reputation as a standard bearer of democracy in a region that has been blighted by civil wars and coups.

Ghana is the world’s second-largest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and Africa’s second biggest gold producer after South Africa. But it was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 for a bailout.

The election results which were slightly delayed due to the delay in voting in two areas as Commission’s systems broke down and they had to fax through polling sheets from 29,000 stations. As the result was announced on Saturday 9th of December 2016 at about 7:51 pm local time the Crowds of supporters that gathered outside the house of the 72-year-old New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader went into wild jubilation to celebrate the victory of their party.

At exactly 8:45 pm local time, President Mahama called Akuffo-Addo to congratulate him on his well deserved victory at the poll thereby conceding defeat to his opponent and appealed to his supporters to accept the result declared by the Electoral Commission fulfilling his earlier promise to accept the outcome of the result whether he wins or losses.

“I want to appeal for calm and call on supporters of our great party to respect the outcome of the vote as I will, whether I win or loss. I want to assure the nation that we will respect the outcome of the election, positive or negative, and so let us just be calm,” he told supporters gathered outside his house. He certainly made this comments to defuse any tension in advance of the release of the official results of the election.

After the result was announced president Mahama spoke to the nation saying “As president I have done my bit. I have made a contribution to the political, social and economic development of our country. I would have cherished an opportunity to do even more but I respect the will of the Ghanaian people”.

Prior to Osei’s announcement, Akufo-Addo said on his Twitter page that President John Mahama called him, congratulating him on winning the 2016 presidential election.

In his acceptance speech, Akufo-Addo said “I make this solemn pledge to you tonight: I will not let you down. I will do all in my power to live up to your hopes and expectations,” Akufo-Addo told supporters in front of his residence.
The Supporters of New Patriotic Party (NPP) cheered, danced and set off fireworks following an anxious day in which his victory had been broadly accepted but there were no official results.

Speaking to Journalists immediately after the release of the result Akufo-Addo explained what he believed to be the hopes and expectations of Ghanaians: “The expectations they have of me, that I’m going to bring them a new government, a new style; a government of honesty, a government that is concerned about the welfare of our people – that basic commitment is the one I am determined to fulfill.”

John Mahama, who came to power in 2012 after beating Akufo-Addo, the president elect who is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, urged voters to “stay the course”, promising to deliver more infrastructure projects.

The series of postponement of the election heated the political atmosphere casting uncertainty on the conduct of the election. The original date of the election was fixed for 7th of December 2016 but was challenged by the Parliament and it was moved forward to 7th of November 2016. Again it was shifted back to 7th of December 2016. This forward and backward movement of the election date almost truncated the process as the political stage became tensed and apprehension enveloped the nation as political parties engaged themselves pointing accusing fingers and allegation and counter allegation of who is behind the series of postponement rent the air it was adequately managed and never turned violent as even before the postponement media report described the campaign as “bitterly fought”.
Electoral system

Ghana runs a well organized political system as the president is elected using the two-round system, whilst the 275 members of Parliament are elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post-voting.
Eligible voters must be Ghanaian citizens who are at least 18 years old, although those declared insane are disenfranchised. Parliamentary candidates must be Ghanaian citizens at least 21 years old, and either be resident in their constituency or have lived there for at least five of the ten years prior to the election.
Candidates

Presidential Candidates

Over 16 people filed with the election commission to run for president of Ghana. However, 13 presidential candidates were disqualified due to incorrect filing procedures. The disqualified candidates included former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the president of the National Democratic Party. There was some controversy due to allegations that the candidates were disqualified for political reasons. The Electoral Commission denied all accusations. After the disqualification, only four presidential candidates remained. Ivor Greenstreet from the Convention People’s Party was the first physically challenged candidate to contest a presidential election.

John Dramani Mahama and his running mate Kwesi Amissah-Arthur ran on the platform of National Democratic Congress (NDC); Nana Akufo-Addo and his running mate are of New Patriotic Party (NPP); Ivor Greenstreet is the first disabled person to run for presidency in Ghana’s political history, his running mate is Gabby Nsiah Nketiah of Convention People’s Party (CPP); Progressive People’s Party (PPP) candidate are Paa Kwesi Nduom, his running mate is Brigitte Dzogbenuku etc.

RESULT
Nana Akufo-Addo of NPP got 5,716,026 votes representing 53.85 percent to emerge winner of the Ghana’s presidential election and his closest rival is the incumbent president of Ghana John Dramani Mahama of NDC polling a total of 4,713,277 representing 44.40 percent to come second in the race.

Other candidates included: Paa Kwesi Nduom of PPP who got 105,682 representing one percent to come third in the election. Ivor Greenstreet of CPP scored 25,395 representing 0.24 percent while other candidate scored far less in the election as seven candidate contested the presidential election as against four candidates cleared by Ghana’s Election Commission but the Supreme Court ruled that the others disqualified should be allowed to join the race.

The outcome maintains Ghana’s record of fiercely-contested but peaceful elections. It is the third time since 2000 that the government of the day has been voted out of office.

The opposition challenged the 2012 election results, which led to an eight-month battle in the Supreme Court. It lost, but many observers said the process strengthened the country’s democracy and confirmed judicial independence.
The scale of the NPP’s victory made another legal challenge unlikely. The party also picked up enough seats to win a parliamentary majority, independent estimates showed.

The NPP will inherit an economy from Mahama’s National Democratic Congress that for years was rated one of Africa’s most dynamic but has slowed sharply since 2014, in part because of prices have fallen for its gold, oil and cocoa exports.
That made the government vulnerable to opposition accusations it had mismanaged the nation’s finances and squandered wealth from oil, which started to flow in 2010 from an offshore field operated by British company Tullow.

In a bid to kick start growth, the NPP says it will create jobs, build a dam in every village and a factory in every district and give each constituency the equivalent of $1 million per year to pursue development projects.

At the same time, it also aims to maintain a tight fiscal stance in a country that is mid-way through an International Monetary Fund program aimed at restoring balance to an economy facing elevated inflation and other problems.