Ghana’s elections set for run-off
The winner of the keenly contested general elections in Ghana will eventually be decided in a run-off.
Certified results declared so far by the Electoral Commission (EC) indicate that the front runner, Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot garner the 50%+1 votes to win the Presidential election.
Nana Akufo-Addo according to the results is leading Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by 124, 225 votes from 211 of the 230 results.
The NDC is likely to have a slim majority in Parliament. The party has won six out of the ten regions.
Prof. Mills won in the following regions: Greater Accra, 870,011 votes out of 1,669,518 valid votes; Volta, 551,046 votes out of 664,888 valid votes; Northern, 422,821 votes out of 732,769 valid votes; and Central, 326,639 votes out of 649,464 valid votes.
The rest are: Upper East Region, 188,405 votes out of 336,060; and the Upper West Region 42,105 votes out of 75,487 valid votes.
Nana Addo on the other hand won in the following regions; in the Ashanti he got 1,157,553 votes out of 1,604,593 valid votes; polled 488,452 votes out of 840,703 valid votes in the Eastern; Western 335,039 votes out of 679,160 valid votes and Brong Ahafo 332,118 votes out of 656,187 valid votes.
In the Greater Accra Region, Former Vice President Mills beat Nana Akufo-Addo by 101,546 votes; in Volta Region by 452,462 votes; Northern Region by 149,034 votes; Central Region by 26,091 votes; Upper East Region 69,951 votes and in the Upper West Region by 14,068 votes.
In Ashanti Region Nana Akufo-Addo beat Former Vice President Mills by 734,368 votes; in the Eastern Region by 150,000 votes; in the Western Region by 31,376 votes and in the Brong Ahafo Region by 19,695.
According to the figures released so far, Nana Akufo-Addo needs to poll 104,756 additional votes and all the other presidential candidates get no votes in the remaining 19 constituencies to be able to win the elections in a first round.
Meanwhile, all the foreign observers in the country to monitor the elections have commended Ghana and Ghanaians for conducting a peaceful and transparent elections.
One observer described the elections as “excellent.” These observation have certainly soared the country’s image as the beacon of hope, peace and democracy on the African continent.
Ghanaians are already bracing themselves up for the second round of campaigning, and voting.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi