Stakes high for NDC and NPP in Presidential Election
The stakes for the 2016 Presidential Election on Wednesday are very high between the two leading candidates.
President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress will not want to be the first President to serve a one term office under the 1992 Constitution, while Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is vying for the third time, is poised not to leave no stone unturned to achieve his goal.
The NDC has based its electoral campaign message on President Mahama’s achievements over the past four years in terms of infrastructure expansion such as the construction of the Kwame Nkrumah and the Kasoa interchanges and the building of 123 Community Day Senior High Schools and roads.
Others are the fixing of the energy crisis “dumsor” that saddled the nation for more than six years and the stabilisation of the Ghana Cedi against other major currencies.
The NPP is calling for a change due to corruption and the economic hardship Ghanaians are going through.
This year’s election campaign has recorded some pockets of violence between supporters of the two leading candidates in Odododiodio and around the Nima residence of Nana Akufo-Addo in Greater Accra Region; Asutifi South and Asunafo South in Brong Ahafo Region; and Bimbilla, Chereponi and Walewale in the Northern Region.
To avoid any further violence, Civil Society led by the Institute for Democratic Governance, the National Peace Council and the National House of Chiefs managed to get the seven Presidential candidates on December 1, to sign the “Accra Declaration” committing themselves to peaceful polls.
They also promised to use judicial means to resolve any electoral dispute.
The signing of the Declaration was witnessed by ECOWAS Chairperson, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, former President Jerry John Rawlings and Mr Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa.
According to the 992 Republican Constitution the winner of the Presidential Election must score 50 per cent of valid votes cast plus one vote.
Mrs Charlotte Osei, the EC Chairperson, said in the invent that no clear winner emerged on December 7, there would be a second round contest on December 28 between the two leading candidates.
She said adequate measures had been put in place by the Commission and the Finance Ministry for it.
Globally, Ghana is seen as a model democracy for the rest of Africa and a beacon of peace and stability and media freedom.
Ghana with a population of nearly 30 million, is endowed with natural resources such as gold, bauxite, diamond, manganese, timber and petroleum.
Cocoa is the main cash crop of the country. It is an emerging designated digital economy with mixed economy hybridisation and an emerging market with 8.7 per cent gross domestic products (GDP) growth in 2012.
Source: GNA