Ghanaians have once again spoken to the rest of Africa that elections can be free and fair. They have demonstrated that elections can be lost and won without the contestants plunging the country into crisis. The country’s presidential and parliamentary elections have once again added to the ray of hope rising in Africa that it is not all doom for the continent’s political development.
On December 7, 2024, Ghanaians trooped out in their numbers to cast their votes in an election that many considered a crucial milestone for their nation.
Prominent among the 13 candidates who contested for the coveted position of the president of the country were Mahamudu Bawumia, who is the current vice president and candidate of the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and John Mahama of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
On Tuesday, December 11, the country’s electoral umpire declared Mahama as the winner garnering 6,328,397 votes, representing 56.55 per cent against Bawumia’s 4,657,304 or 41.61 per cent of the votes.
But what made the contest so remarkable was the fact that earlier on Sunday, Bawumia had called his opponent to concede defeat even before the official announcement of the result.
He based his concession on the tally of the results by his party’s collation centre.
‘’The people of Ghana have spoken; the people have voted for change at this time, and we respect it with humility.
“Let me say that the data from our internal collation of the election results indicate that former President John Dramani Mahama has won the presidential election decisively,” Bawumia said.
The NDC also went ahead to secure a landslide in the result of the parliamentary election, which was held along with that of the president.
The party secured 187 seats against NPP’s 80, while other parties got three seats in the 276-seat parliament.
The elections were remarkably conducted in a peaceful atmosphere with no major incident reported from the campaign period up to the voting and announcement of results. There has also not been any reported unwarranted incident following the announcement of the results.
International and local observers, including the ECOWAS, the Commonwealth and the European Union, commended the conduct of the election, declaring it as peaceful and reflecting the wishes of Ghanaians.
We at the Daily Trust congratulate the leaders and citizens of the country for, once again, setting a good example and telling the world that Africa’s story is not all gloom and tragic. They have demonstrated that we can chart our course without interference from any quarter and are capable of observing and institutionalising democratic tenets.
It is also remarkable that the peaceful conduct of elections in Ghana came barely a month after a similar feat in Botswana, where the opposition candidate defeated a sitting prime minister and power was transmitted peacefully.
A similar scenario also happened earlier in Senegal which also saw the ruling party losing.
Ghana has over the years shown this capacity given that Mahama was once defeated as the incumbent in 2016 when he sought a second term and again in 2020.
What these show is that Africa is capable of conducting elections under the best democratic process once our leaders are committed.
Daily Trust believes that the pathway to Africa’s genuine development is when leaders are democratically elected and are held accountable by the electorate through elections.
While congratulating both winners and losers, we also especially call on the winners to ensure they deliver on the mandate and promises they made to the electorate.
It was clear from reports that Ghanaians were not happy with the way the economy was being run. This they showed by voting out those they felt were responsible for the current economic difficulty they are facing. Thus the current government has its job well cut out for it and we hope that they will not disappoint the voters.
Mahama and his party, the NDC, have won the election but the winners are all Ghanaians, who will continue to enjoy the peace that electoral integrity guarantees in a nation.
We, therefore, congratulate all Ghanaians for guarding their democratic rights and exercising them peacefully. They have further given hope to Africa.
We also congratulate the electoral umpire for living up to expectations. The speed and efficiency with which Ghana handled the election should challenge African countries to do the same.
This will be good for Africa.
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