In Ghana vote count starts, no ballot snatching, no vote buying, no killing, just old fashion voting

Ghana voted in a presidential and parliamentary election on Saturday amid hopes for an economic revival after the worst financial crisis in a generation, which led to a major debt default in the West African nation.

President Nana Akufo-Addo is stepping down next month after serving the two terms allowed by the constitution in Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer and a significant gold miner.

Through out the campaigns and voting there were no killings, no vote buying, no violence as the people showed a maturity with which the small West African nation has been associated for sometime.

Twelve candidates are vying to succeed him, but the race is seen as primarily between Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, chosen successor of Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP), and former President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Opinion polls tipped Mahama, who served as president from 2012 to 2016, for a potential comeback.

Mahama, 66, has framed Bawumia as representing a continuation of policies that led to Ghana’s economic woes, and has promised to renegotiate terms of a $3 billion IMF bailout secured last year to restructure the country’s debts. The crisis peaked in 2022 when Ghana turned to the IMF.

“This is the only election that we can all see the direction of the outcome before we start voting,” Mahama said after casting his vote in Bole, his home town in northern Ghana.
“We are hopeful and confident that we’ll win,” he added.

Bawumia, a 61-year-old former central banker, also expressed confidence that he would win after he voted in his Walewale constituency in northern Ghana.

“By the grace of God, I’m very hopeful of winning this election. I think that we have done a lot of work. We have put our message to the people, I think the message has been well received,” he said.

On the campaign trail, Bawumia has highlighted Ghana’s gradual recovery from the crisis, with economic growth surging by 6.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, the fastest rate in five years. He told supporters he will foster policies that will strengthen Ghana’s recovery.
Both candidates said voting was generally calm and peaceful.

Jubilant NDC supporters took to the streets of Accra’s historic Jamestown, chanting, banging pans and blaring horns after results from their polling stations showed the party in a comfortable lead.