Category: Politics

{Ghana’s opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo has won Wednesday’s tightly contested presidential election.}

President John Mahama called Mr Akufo-Addo to admit defeat, a spokesman for his party said, as the Electoral Commission announced the result.

Mr Akufo-Addo has promised free high-school education and more factories but critics have questioned the viability of his ambitions.

Celebrations have broken out in the capital, Accra.

Ghana has been a multi-party democracy since the end of military rule in 1992 and this result is seen as reinforcing its reputation for the peaceful transfer of power between administrations.

Mr Akufo-Addo, from the New Patriotic Party, won the election on his third attempt to reach the presidency, after a campaign dominated by the country’s faltering economy.
“I make this solemn pledge to you tonight: I will not let you down,” he told a jubilant crowd in front of his residence.

“I will do all in my power to live up to your hopes and expectations.”

Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) declared Mr Akufo-Addo the winner, with 53.85% of the votes, while Mr Mahama took 44.40%. Turnout was at 68.62%.

72 years-old

Human rights lawyer

Campaigned for a return to multi-party democracy under military rule

A former justice and foreign minister in the NPP government from 2001 to 2007, he is running for president for a third time

Main promise: Build a factory in each of Ghana’s more than 200 districts

In the previous election in 2012, Mr Mahama, from the National Democratic Congress, defeated Mr Akufo-Addo by less than 300,000 votes.

{President, who had conceded defeat last week, changes his position, demanding new polls due to “serious abnormalities”.}

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has said that he rejects the outcome of last week’s election that he lost to opposition leader Adama Barrow, only days after he conceded defeat to him in a public address.

The fresh announcement he made on state television on Friday throws the future of the West African country into doubt after the unexpected election results ended Jammeh’s 22-year rule.

Jammeh had conceded defeat on state TV last week, prompting wild celebrations over the ending of a government that human-rights groups accused of detaining, torturing and killing opponents.

“After a thorough investigation, I have decided to reject the outcome of the recent election. I lament serious and unacceptable abnormalities which have reportedly transpired during the electoral process,” Jammeh said, changing his position on the election results.

“I recommend fresh and transparent elections which will be officiated by a god-fearing and independent electoral commission,” he said.

Jammeh’s announcement presents an unexpected and severe challenge to the incoming Barrow administration, which was already grappling with how to take the reins of power and deal with the army that for two decades was loyal to the president.

Latest official figures gave Barrow 43.29 percent of the votes in the presidential election, while Jammeh took 39.64 percent. The turnout was at 59 percent.

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Soldiers were seen placing sandbags in strategic locations across the capital Banjul on Friday, a development that triggered widespread unease among the already-spooked population, who had been panic-buying food before the vote due to fear of unrest.

Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that Banjul was quiet overnight, and that there was particular nervousness about the president’s statement that he would deal harshly with any troublemakers who took to the streets.

Opposition spokeswoman Isatou Touray criticised on social media a “violation of democracy” and called for people to “remain calm, lucid, vigilant and not retreat.”

The US state department said in a statement that Jammeh’s rejection of the results was an egregious attempt to undermine a credible election and remain illegitimately in power.

Senegal’s Foreign Minister, Mankeur Ndiaye, called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and “solemnly” warned Jammeh not to harm Senegal’s interests or its citizens in Gambia.

Senegal, which has Gambia’s only land border and entirely surrounds the small riverside country, is a non-permanent member of the Security Council. Its army intervened in Gambia in 1981 during a coup.

{There have been long queues at polling stations in Ghana amid a tight election race between President John Mahama and veteran opposition leader Nana Akufo Addo.}

All seven candidates have pledged to keep the process peaceful but an opposition supporter died when a rally tuned violent on Monday.

The campaign has been dominated by the faltering state of Ghana’s economy and the issue of corruption.

A run-off will be held later in the month if neither of the two main candidates secures more than 50% of the votes.

Polls have officially closed but those already in queue before 17:00 local time are being allowed to vote. In a number of constituencies where voting started late, that deadline has been extended by five hours, an election commission spokesman told Ghanaian website Joy News.

In Tema, where I’m registered, I found a queue of men and women waiting for voting to start. The first in one of the queues, Alfred Aggrey, told me he arrived five hours earlier. Many wanted to get on with their day’s business.

Loud noises of disapproval rung out when polling officers positioned the voting booths away from the crowd. People demanded that the booths be made to face them so they could see people going in to thumbprint only the assigned ballot papers and no other papers that they suspected could be smuggled in.

After a few minutes of shouting at the officers, their request was carried out to cheers of approval.

Voting in his northern home region of Bole, where he was mobbed by a cheering crowd, President Mahama said Ghana’s democracy had “matured” and this election would further consolidate it.

Asked about corruption, he told AFP news agency: “There is a general perception of corruption in all African countries. I think it is a stage of our development. As we continue to strengthen the institutions of state, I think that people will come to see the integrity in these institutions.”

Casting his vote in Kibi in the south of Ghana, Mr Akufo-Addo said he hoped for an orderly election.

“It’s very important that this process goes off efficiently and smoothly and peacefully so that Ghana continues to maintain its deserved image of being a democracy that takes democracy seriously,” he said.

The candidates signed a pact last week vowing to follow electoral rules and keep the peace.

Many Ghanaians began queuing at polling stations overnight.

“I needed to register the strong feeling I have about this country with my thumb and the least I could do was to sacrifice sleep,” Comfort Laryea, a 78-year-old who had waited to vote since 04:00 in the capital, Accra, told the Reuters news agency.
For many, the economy is the main issue.

“We need change in Ghana because things are very difficult,” taxi driver Stephen Antwi Boasiako told the AP news agency. “This country has a lot of resources that can provide good jobs, but they’re not used.”

Police have told voters to go home after casting their votes, Joy FM reported.
Clashes near the border with Togo on Monday left one person dead and six in a critical condition.

Defeat for Mr Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would make him the first incumbent to lose an election since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy.
He has been nicknamed “Mr Dumsor”, a local word that refers to the power cuts that have blighted the country during his term, but on the campaign trial has been trying to convince Ghanaians that he is delivering on his promise of creating more jobs.

Mr Akufo-Addo meanwhile has promised free high-school education and more factories, but his critics have questioned the viability of his ambitions.

The other four candidates include former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP), whose husband Jerry John Rawlings initially took power in the 1979 coup.

She is the first woman to run for president in the West African country.

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NDC candidate: John Dramani Mahama, 58

Vice-president under President John Atta Mills, who died in 2012. Completed his term

Now seeking re-election after serving his first term of four years

Political pedigree: His father was first minister of state for the Northern region

Can ‘Mr Power Cut’ John Mahama win a second term?

NPP candidate: Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 72

Campaigned for a return to multi-party democracy under military rule

A former justice and foreign minister in the NPP government from 2001 to 2007, he is running for president for a third time

Political pedigree: His father was a prominent politician who served as chief justice and ceremonial president

{Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh has ruthlessly pursued opponents real and imaginary, and implied more than once that he would kill anyone who defied him.}

His magnanimous concession speech and promise of a swift handover to president-elect Adama Barrow after 22 years in power has therefore left many scratching their heads a week after the election.

Opposition figures and analysts believe he may have been caught out by his own fawning entourage, who reassured him so frequently he would win that the counter possibility never occurred to him.

After an unprecedented two-week opposition campaign, Jammeh rumbled into Banjul’s cricket ground in a 4X4 and predicted his best score ever on December 1, election day.

“By the grace of the almighty Allah, there will be the biggest landslide in the history of my elections,” said Jammeh, wearing his usual white robes and sunglasses, a Koran in one hand.

The collision of his arrogance, changes to election rules and an opposition organised and united for the first time ever meant that, by the time Jammeh worked out what had happened by nightfall, it was too late.

Gambia observer Jim Wormington of Human Rights Watch told AFP that Jammeh relied on the same tactics that had delivered four previous electoral victories, without accounting for the work done by the opposition to build support.

“Jammeh believed… his domination of state media, mobilising of local officials in support of his candidacy, muzzling of independent journalists and imprisonment of key opposition figures, would once again guarantee victory,” Wormington told AFP.

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But several factors had changed since Jammeh’s 2011 re-election with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Analyst Mathias Hounkpe of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) said on-the-spot counting used for the first time in a presidential election may have made it difficult to fix the polls in his favour.

“The announcement of results at the polling station level could have allowed the margin of fraud to be reduced in comparison with the past,” Hounkpe said.

This did not prevent a central polling error that was only corrected on Monday that showed Barrow had won by just over 19,000 votes, a slimmer margin than first thought.

Essentially, Barrow’s opposition coalition may not have had a fair fight, but they had a free one, according to Wormington.

“Gambians — on election day itself — were able to vote freely for the candidate of their choice,” he said.

Allegations of electoral fraud in previous years may be moot anyway, according to some observers.

One western diplomat based in the region said it was “unlikely the result would have been different if rigging had happened” in previous elections, as the opposition vote was split and the parties weak.

Alieu Momar Njie, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, was watching the votes being counted on election night when state broadcaster GRTS informed him that its scheduled coverage would stop.

“When (Jammeh) found out he had lost the election he informed the television managing director who put on hold the announcement of the results because he was going to concede defeat through the television,” Njie said.

The Gambia’s GRTS channel was switched to Koranic recitals to await Jammeh’s announcement, but he decided not to appear, leaving confusion over the result and a vacuum of information that quickly filled with rumours.

An internet shutdown and the blocking of text messages only fed the sense of a conspiracy building.

Very few people know exactly what happened between then and Njie’s announcement late Friday morning that Jammeh would concede.

Media in neighbouring Senegal has said Jammeh was persuaded by senior military figures to respect the result, while others have said he was given an ultimatum to accept or lose their support.

Regardless, the military did not stop the result being delivered, if later than planned, and Jammeh conceded defeat later Friday.

{{COALITION TEST}}

OSIWA’s Hounkpe noted that Jammeh’s relaxed demeanour in his televised concession speech “didn’t give the impression that something was about to happen to him”.

By then, according to one Gambian diplomat working in another west African nation and with close links to the president, Barrow had guaranteed Jammeh his safety.

The president was asked to tell his soldiers to “stay calm” in return, the diplomat told AFP.

Barrow told AFP on the morning after the vote he was “certain” of victory, and by afternoon he was the president-elect.

The coalition’s first big test will be managing an outpouring of anger at Jammeh, a man who repressed so many for so long, but who still enjoys significant support.

For the moment, calls for prosecution have been delicately sidestepped by the most senior members of Barrow’s team, as they oversee a delicate transition period.

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{Ghanaians cast their ballots today in neck and neck presidential and parliamentary polls held at a time of economic woes and corruption scandals that have eroded President John Mahama’s lustre.}

Mahama’s main rival is veteran politician and former foreign minister Nana Akufo-Addo. The winner will serve a four-year term in a formerly booming country that has seen its economy sputter, currency deteriorate and inflation soar.

There are some 15 million registered voters. Polling starts at 0700 GMT and closes at 1700 GMT across the West African country.

An exporter of gold, cocoa and oil, Ghana was once hailed as a regional growth model but has now taken on too much debt.

There are seven candidates battling for the top job and if the smaller parties perform well and deny either men a majority, a presidential run-off will be held later in December.

Leaving nothing to chance on the last day of campaigning Monday, Mahama held three rallies in the major swing regions of Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti and Greater Accra.

Mahama’s final rally was full of supporters wearing white — a sign of victory — banging cowbells, dancing and posing for selfies.

“We’re celebrating already,” said Alhaji Guntula, a 45-year-old businessman with his face painted white told AFP. “He’s winning hands down.”

Mahama has announced several infrastructure projects during the campaign.

In contrast, Akufo-Addo has hammered on Ghana’s poor economic growth, the slowest rate in two decades at 3.3 percent in 2016 according to the International Monetary Fund, and has outlined detailed plans to get the economy back on track.

He has lambasted Mahama’s ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government over a series of corruption scandals in which scores of judges have been implicated. Critics say he squandered the country’s commodity wealth and turned a blind eye to graft within his inner circle.

During his tenure, the Bank of Ghana controversially bought half a million dollars worth of gold Swiss watches for some of its staff.

The leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has also alleged that the ruling party is fomenting violence, a claim Mahama denies.

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But tension is rising ahead of the high stakes election.

Ghana police said a NPP supporter was beaten to death, with six others left in critical condition in clashes between supporters of the two main parties after a rally in the north on Monday.

Elections in Ghana are famously close fought, with Mahama narrowly winning in 2012 with 50.7 percent.

But polls in Africa this year have been a mixed bag of surprising triumphs and sobering failures for democracy.

In Gambia, a dictator of 22 years conceded defeat, while in oil-rich Gabon the Bongo family continued its 50-year reign after a disputed election. But Ghana is still seen as an example of peace and stability in West Africa.

Pollsters are divided in a country whose democratic credentials have come under scrutiny after criticism of its electoral commission following the 2012 elections.

“The inauguration of Mahama’s projects have attracted the swing voters,” said pollster Ben Ephson, who has predicted Mahama will win 52 percent of the votes, mainly from working class constituencies.

Following the last elections in 2012, Akufo-Addo — who polled 47.7 percent of the vote — contested the results in Ghana’s constitutional court, although he was ultimately unsuccessful.

Akufo-Addo, who said previously that he would accept the results even if he loses, added recently: “Those are hurdles we have to jump once we get there”.