ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Ghana’s former leader John Dramani Mahama was declared the winner of the presidential election on Monday and pledged a “a life of limitless opportunity” for citizens after voters vented their anger over the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
Previously president of the West African nation between 2012 and 2017, the 65-year-old Mahama received 56.5% of votes cast, or 6.3 million votes, the electoral commission said. His main opponent from the current governing party, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, conceded defeat on Sunday and got 41%, or 4.6 million votes.
Electoral commissioner Jean Mensa said vote-counting continued in nine constituencies but would not change the final result. Turnout was just over 60%.
Mahama had promised to “reset” the country on various fronts. His campaign prioritized the economy and largely appealed to young Ghanaians who saw the vote as a way out of the economic crisis.
In his victory speech on Monday, Mahama said Ghana must be able to meet the basic needs of its people including affordable housing, health care, food, clean water, safe work and fair wages.
“We want a Ghana that considers the well-being of all her citizens and affords them each the ability to live a life of dignity, a life of limitless opportunity,” he said. “This country, this land, is not for one person or for one family or for one tribe or ethnic group.”
He said the last eight years under outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo have "left a scar on our national psyche, which may take some time to erase.”
Mahama’s win is viewed as following the trend of elections around the world, favoring opposition parties against incumbents. Mahama’s National Democratic Congress also won the majority in parliament.
After Bawumia conceded defeat, celebrations broke out among opposition supporters in the capital, Accra, and elsewhere. Women and young people danced to music and trumpet blasts.
The election for both the president and members of parliament was seen as a litmus test for democracy in a region shaken by extremist violence and coups. West Africa’s regional bloc, ECOWAS, called the election generally peaceful, not unusual for Ghana.
The governing New Patriotic Party has struggled to resolve the economic crisis under outgoing Akufo-Addo.
The former president is “the only person” who can fix the ailing economy in Ghana, one of West Africa’s economic powerhouses, said Jude Agbemava, a policy analyst who voted for him.
The people made their disaffection known against a government that has lost goodwill, said Seidu Alidu, head of the department of political science at Ghana’s University of Legon.
The economy is “largely a bread and butter issue for every Ghanaian,” Alidu said. “When the people elect you, they require you to do certain things for them. But it was also about the style of governance (because) even in other countries facing economic challenges, governments were being honest with the people, telling them what the reality is, and the steps they have taken to manage it.”