Mahama Declared President Elect of Ghana With 56%gainst Bawumia’s 41%
Former President John Mahama, assumed winner of the December 7, 2024 presidential election
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, has officially declared John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as the president-elect in the 2024 general elections.
The polls, held across the country on Saturday, December 7, resulted in a landslide victory for the former president, Mr Mahama.
According to the EC chairperson who’s the returning officer, Jean Mensa, Mr John Mahama polled 6,328,397 representing 56.55%, while the vice president and presidential candidate of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, secured 4, 657, 304, representing 41.61%, representing.
She, however, explained that the results were collated from 267 constituencies due to outstanding issues with nine constituencies whose results are yet to come in.
She added that per the EC’s calculation, if the results of the nine constituencies which comes to a little over 947,000 votes were added to the first runner’s result, it would not change the declaration of John Mahama as the winner.
She said the results of the nine constituencies would eventually be collated and added to the results for the Commission’s record.
The total valid votes according to Jean Mensa is 11,191,422, with rejected ballots being 239,109.
The total votes cast were 11, 430,531, whereas the register had a total of 18, 774, 159.
The percentage of voter turnout in the 2024 election stands at 60.9% based on 267 constituencies.
Over the weekend, Ghanaians went to the polls to elect new Members of Parliament (MPs) and a President of the Republic.
Although some parliamentary seats are outstanding due to disagreements, the NDC has won enough seats to have a clear majority in parliament.
The exercise, which started peacefully on Saturday morning, later escalated into chaos in some parts of the country due to issues of attempted rigging, and delays in the collation of results in some constituencies.
The post-election violence has claimed three lives, with many others injured. The Ghana Police Service has so far arrested 89 people for various election-related offences.
Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the NDC, urged their supporters at a press conference to desist from causing trouble.
Meanwhile, the National Youth Organizer of the NPP, Salam Mohammed Mustapha, in a separate press conference, condemned the actions of NDC supporters.
He called on the police to act swiftly to prevent further disturbances.