Ghana’s vice-president Mahamadu Bawumia has conceded the presidential election to his opposition rival John Dramani Mahama.
In a concession speech on Sunday Bawumia said he would not contest the outcome of the polls to prevent the rise of further tension which became apparent in the lead up to the polls.
His concession comes as the electoral commission of Ghana delays announcing the full official results from the country’s 16 regions.
Over 18 million Ghanaians were registered for Saturday’s polls which pitted Bawumia and Mahama as the main front-runners out of 12 candidates in the race for the presidency.
The other contestants share the remainder of the votes tally which stands at just 1.92 percent.
There were jubilant scenes in Accra and other parts of the West African country on Sunday as Mahama of the National Democratic Congress establishes an unassailable lead prompting Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party to concede defeat.
NDC supporters honked car horns and danced wildly in the streets as early permutations suggest that Mahama has collected 54.76 percent of the votes (1, 066, 633) while Bawumia polled 43.31 percent of the ballot (843, 526), according to Joy Prime TV.
The private television station also reported that the NDC had secured 73 of the 276 parliamentary seats announced so far with the NPP winning 19.
Mahama, 65, is poised for a return after losing two presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 to outgoing president Nana Akufo-Addo who has served two four-year terms.
The former school teacher once served in various capacities including as minister, vice-president, MP and president until he was voted out of office in 2016.
Mahama is an acclaimed writer whose memoir, My First Coup D’etat attracted positive rave reviews from Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe, two of the continent’s literary greats.
He had campaigned n a platform of righting the economic wrongs his NDC had accused the outgoing NPP government of neglecting.
Mahama is a product of Achimota,
WN/as/APA