The declaration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the presidential election and the rejection of the result by the opposition NDC are the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been given the mandate to govern Ghana for the next four years from January 7, 2021 to January 6, 2025.
This follows the declaration by the Electoral Commission (EC) that he is the winner of the presidential election held on Monday, December 7, 2020.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who contested the election on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) won with 6,730,413 votes which represents 51.295 percent of the total valid votes cast.
His closest competitor and former president John Dramani Mahama from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) got 6,214,889 votes representing 47.366 percent.
The total valid votes cast was 13, 434,574 representing 79 percent of the total registered voters.
Declaring the results Wednesday evening [December 9, 2020], 48 hours after the polls closed, the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa described the elections as “incident free” and “peaceful.”
The newspapers says that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected the declaration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo as the winner of the presidential polls by the Electoral Commission (EC).
At a press conference in Accra, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, described the declaration by the EC as flawed and one that would not be accepted by the NDC.
“We roundly reject and outrightly reject the declaration of the sitting President as the winner of the 2020 elections,” he said.
He announced that the flagbearer of the NDC, former President John Dramani Mahama will soon address the nation with figures and other incontrovertible evidence to back the NDC’s claims.
The Graphic also reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured Ghanaians that he will work hard to ensure a prosperous nation for all.
“I give you my word that I will continue to work very hard for a prosperous Ghana,” President Akufo-Addo said following his re-election at the just ended December 7 polls.
President Akufo-Addo won the poll with 6,730,413 votes which represent 51.595 per cent of the total valid votes cast – 515,524 votes more than his closest competitor, John Dramani Mahama from the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who got 47.366 per cent of the valid votes cast.
In a victory speech at his Nima residence in Accra, President Akufo-Add said “I’m determined to do all in my power to accomplish the task of this new mandate.”
“I assure you, fellow Ghanaians, that I will do my best not to let you down.”
He also attributed his victory to God’s grace, saying, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
“I give thanks to the Almighty God for his continuous mercies and granting my party and I this all important win,” he added.
“It’s been a hard fought one which has resulted in an incontestable result and I am duly grateful for how far he has brought us,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He noted however that he was certain of victory considering the “amount of work that we have done since coming into office in 2017.”
The Times says that five people were shot dead and 15 others suffered injuries in violence nationwide during the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
The incidents,,which were recorded between December 7 and 9, 2020, occurred in Central, Greater Accra, Bono East, and Northern regions.
The Director of the Police Public Affairs, Superintendent of Police (Supt) SheillaKessie Abayie-Buckman, who disclosed these in a statement, released to Ghanaian Times, in Accra, yesterday, said that the cases were under investigations.
She said the Joint Operation Centre of the National Security Taskforce has recorded 61 electoral and post-electoral incidents, adding that 21 of the incidents were electoral violence of which six involved gunshots, resulting in the death of five people.
Abayie-Buckman stated that gunshots occurred in Awutu Senya East constituency, in which two were injured from shooting incident by civilians on December 7, 2020.
“In the Greater Accra Region, Odododiodoo constituency, two died,and six were injured from shooting by civilians during post-election violence on December 7,2020,” she said.
The newspaper reports that the value of mobile money transactions more than doubled from January to October this year compared to the same period last year, according to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison.
He said the value of mobile money transactions increased to GH¢58 billion from January to October relative to the GH¢28.4 billion recorded in the same period last year, representing an increase of more than 51 percent.
Dr. Ernest Addison, who disclosed this at the 2020 annual dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana on the theme “Resilience in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and outlook for the sector,” said cumulatively from January to October 2020, the number of mobile money transactions increased to 279 million, from 188 million recorded in the same period last year.
“Digital transactions and payments, especially on mobile money transactions and the Ghana Inter-bank and Payment Settlement System (GhIPSS) Instant Pay was seeing significant growth,” he said.
Dr. Addison said the GhIPSS Instant Pay recorded exponential growth in both volumes and values as real time electronic transfers between banks increased significantly.
GIK/APA