Ghana Elections: Five candidates congratulate Akufo-Addo

Akufo-Addo’s opposing New Patriotic Party (NPP) called upon Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) to concede defeat on Thursday morning.

Opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo is poised to become Ghana’s president-elect having taken the lead after Wednesday’s election.

Although the Electoral Commission is yet to release certified result, Dr. Nduom said results available to him projects Akufo-Addo as victor of the polls held on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the NPP views the 2016 elections as the final opportunity for its 72-year old leader Akufo-Addo to ascend to the presidency, and the political party has continuously touted its past economic record, where growth increased from 3.7% in 2000 to 9.5% in 2008.

“The people of Ghana can not continue suffering under the incompetent Mahama administration”, Akufo-Addo said Sunday at his closing campaign rally in Accra.

Three hours in the queue of an Accra polling station have turned Azazariah Norteyi into an angry man.

Akufo-Addo had told his supporters that “vigilance is key” at the polls in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the 2012 vote – narrowly won by Mahama with 50.7% – that he contested unsuccessfully in the country’s Supreme Court.

Both have pledged to rebuilt Ghana’s battered economy, fight corruption and create jobs for the country’s unemployed.

The government has denied the accusations and urged voters for vote it, arguing that growth would return to at least eight percent in 2017.

This election marks the third time Akufo-Addo has run for president.

Akufo-Addo accused the ruling party of fomenting violence as police turn a blind eye, casting doubt on the country’s reputation as beacon of democracy in Africa.

Ghanaians began voting Wednesday in an unpredictable presidential election that is being seen as a litmus test of stability in Africa’s most secure democracy.

“So far this phase of the process is evolving peacefully”, Christopher Fomunyoh, regional director for the US-based National Democratic Institute, an accredited observer, told AFP.

Five other candidates, including Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, a former first lady and wife of former President Jerry Rawlings are also in the race.

In one of his final rallies before campaigning official ends at midnight on Monday, Mahama painted a very different picture of Ghana’s economy.

According to the Electoral commission, about 15.8 million Ghanaians are registered to cast their votes, a figure that represents 57% of the West African nation’s population.

A senior official for the ruling party, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, countered that Mahama was “comfortably ahead” and asked his supporters to remain calm.