Opposition leader projected to win elections in West African state
Ghanaian opposition leader John Dramani Mahama might win the West African nation’s presidential election in December, according to a new poll released by the independent research organization Global InfoAnalytics.
The data published on Monday shows Mahama, the candidate for Ghana’s largest opposition coalition, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), winning 52% of the votes. His main rival, Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), received 41.3% in the projection.
Mahama, 65, had previously served as Ghana’s president from July 2012 until January 2017, when he lost the election to Nana Akufo-Addo. He first rose to power following the death of his predecessor, John Evans Attah Mills, in whose administration he had been vice president.
Despite significant infrastructure investments, Mahama’s government endured widespread criticism for the country’s erratic power supply and the depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar, as well as allegations of corruption directed against his officials.
However, the country’s economic crisis is said to have worsened under the current government, which promised a new era of development and a “Ghana Beyond Aid” in campaigns that helped it win power twice – in 2016 and 2020. Akufo-Addo’s administration defaulted on most of the country’s $30 billion in external debt in 2022, following years of borrowing.
Late last month, an Afrobarometer report revealed a decline in public trust in the NPP government’s ability to manage the economy and raise people’s standard of living in Africa’s top gold-producing nation. According to the survey, Ghanaians consider unemployment as the most pressing issue, followed by infrastructure, particularly roads and healthcare facilities.
Bawumia, the current vice president and chairman of the country’s Economic Management Team, is promising a government in which the state has complete control over mineral resources. He has also pledged to transform the fishing industry, introduce tax incentives for individuals and businesses, and increase educational spending. The economist, who holds a PhD from Simon Fraser University in Canada, is replacing President Akufo-Addo as the NPP’s candidate. Akufo-Addo’s second and final four-year term ends this year, as stipulated by the Ghanaian constitution.
Mahama, who holds a master’s degree in social psychology from the Moscow Institute of Social Sciences, has promised to “reset Ghana for good governance and accountability,” with a government that will operate a 24-hour economy.
He has stated that Ghana is at a “crossroads with injustice,” with the “economy inflicting untold hardships” on the former British colony’s 34 million people.
Eleven other candidates are running for president, including Alan Kyerematen, a former member of the ruling party, who turned independent after losing the presidential primary to Bawumia in 2023.
