Ghana: Election results controversy

Ghana’s opposition has rejected the presidential and parliamentary election results after President Nana Akufo-Addo was announced the winner with 51.59 percent of the vote.

“Overwhelming evidence available makes it impossible for us to accept this spurious and hurried conclusion,” Haruna Iddrisu, a member of parliament for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party said.

NDC’s leader, former President John Mahama, secured 47.36 percent of the votes, according to the results announced.

“We intend to take decisive and concrete steps, both with the presidential and parliamentary results, to overturn this brazen and shameless attack on our democracy,” said Iddrissu, speaking at a press conference in the capital, Accra.

Soldiers stand as supporters of the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, protest outside Ghana's Electoral Commission headquarters in Accra on December 9, 2020.
Soldiers stand as supporters of the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, protest outside Ghana’s Electoral Commission headquarters in Accra on December 9, 2020.

The results followed a contentious poll that both candidates had said they were leading based on their parties’ tallies.

The West African country is known for its stable democracy, but tensions rose after Mahama claimed to have won a parliamentary majority and warned Akufo-Addo, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), against stealing the vote.

Mahama, 62, charged that Akufo-Addo, 76, had harnessed the military in a bid to sway the outcome, a claim the government said was false.

“You cannot use the military to try and overturn some of the results in constituencies that we have won. We will resist any attempts to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghanaian people,” Mahama said.

Five people have been killed and about 60 injured in election-related violence since the December 7 vote.