President-Elect Nana Akufo-Addo flanked by President Mahama (left) and Dr. Mahumadu Bawumia (right)
President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made history last Friday when against all odds, he defeated incumbent John Dramani Mahama with a margin of over one million votes.
While Nana Akufo-Addo’s votes appreciated significantly, National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) John Mahama’s dropped. Nana Addo widened the gap with 1,002,749 votes, with four more constituencies outstanding.
In the 2012 election, Nana Addo won in two regions (Ashanti and Eastern), but now has six to his credit, including the four swing regions – Brong-Ahafo, Western, Central and Greater Accra.
The NPP leader will become the 5th President in the 4th Republic of Ghana when he is finally inaugurated on January 7, 2017.
There was spontaneous and wild jubilation all over the country when the Returning Officer of the presidential poll, who is the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, declared the respected 72-year-old legal gem as the president-elect. The jubilation has not ceased since the declaration last week Friday.
Some Ghanaians are even referring to the historic success chalked by the opposition New Patriotic Party as the ‘second independence’ of Ghana.
Official Results
On the EC’s website, it has displayed results from 271 out of the 275 constituencies, showing 10,781,609 as the total votes cast in the presidential poll on December 7, 2016.
Nana Akufo-Addo polled 53.85% with 5,716,026 votes while President Mahama secured 44.40% with 4,713,277 votes.
Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP’s), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom had 1% with 105,682 votes while the Convention People’s Party’s (CPP’s) Ivor Kobina Greenstreet managed 0.24% (25,395 votes).
Veteran politician, People’s National Convention (PNC) presidential candidate, Dr. Edward Nasigre Mahama, polled 0.21% (22,214 votes) while former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings who broke away from the ruling NDC to form the National Democratic Party (NDP), garnered 0.16% (16,878 votes) and Jacob Osei Yeboah who had contested as independent candidate, got 0.15% (15,889 votes).
National Statistics
According to the EC, the national statistics pegged the voter population at 15,712,499. However, 10,615,361 out of 10,781,917 valid votes were cast, representing 68.62% turnout and 166,248 as rejected ballots.
With this feat, Nana Akufo-Addo has become the first son of an ex-President (Edward Akufo-Addo) to be president of Ghana.
He is also the first person to maintain one running mate (Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia) for three consecutive elections – 2008, 2012 and 2016.
He is the first opposition leader to win ‘one-touch’ (over the 50% plus 1 as mandated by the Constitution) in Ghana’s electoral history.
Nana performed respectably at the polls and appeared to increase his votes at almost every polling station in the country while President Mahama’s votes continuously reduced.
Interesting Facts
Apart from the president-elect’s electoral success, the NPP as a party also flattened President Mahama’s NDC on the parliamentary front.
The NDC in the last parliament had a commanding majority of 148 MPs with the NPP’s 123 and two independent MPs as well as one each for the CPP and the PNC.
However, by December 8, 2016, the NDC had lost about 49 seats and its parliamentary majority had fizzled into thin air.
In fact, the opposition party has managed to secure 171 parliamentary seats from the previous 123 and the NDC is currently hovering around 100 seats with some four seats yet to be declared.
As it is, the NPP from January 7, 2017, will be the party with official majority in parliament.
Seats Permutation
The NPP grabbed many prominent seats across the country; and the region in which it actually shocked the NDC was Central, which is the home region of current Vice President Amissah-Arthur as well as the late President John Evans Atta Mills.
In fact, the party won 19 out of 23 seats and that appeared to have marked the end of the ruling party’s reign in the region. The NDC supporters are said to be venting their spleens on regional chairman Bernard Allotey Jacobs.
Currently, the NPP has 21 seats against the NDC’s 13 while in the Eastern Region the former consolidated its position with 28 against the NDC’s five.
In the Central Region the NPP grabbed 19 seats compared to the NDC’s 4 while in its (NPP’s) stronghold in Ashanti, it had 44 against the NDC’s three.
The NDC is still strong in the Northern Region but its fortunes dwindled and the NPP seats increased. The NDC grabbed 17 seats against the NPP’s 14, while in the Western Region the NPP once again routed the NDC 16 -10.
The NDC maintained its dominance in the Volta Region but lost one seat to the NPP and therefore it stands at NPP-1, NDC-25; while in the Brong-Ahafo Region the NPP again shored up its seats with 20 against the NDC’s 9.
The NPP shocked political analysts when it took five seats in the Upper West Region where it had none, reducing the NDC’s to six, but in the Upper East Region, the NDC maintained its dominance with 12 seats against the NPP’s three.
The next parliament is going to be a straight fight between the majority NPP and the minority NDC because there was no other party or independent candidate who could win a seat this time round.
The number of women MPs increased marginally by 6 – from 29 to 35 – a development which gender activists said was not the best as far as gender parity is concerned.
By William Yaw Owusu