Voters within the West African nation of Ghana are heading to the polls on Saturday to determine the nation’s subsequent parliament and president in tense, tightly contested elections that come amid biting financial hardship and basic frustration with outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo’s authorities.
The presidential election pits present Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Celebration (NPP) towards his foremost challenger, former President John Dramani Mahama of the opposition Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC).
Bawumia and Mahama are each from the traditionally deprived northern a part of the nation and have rallied exhausting to enchantment to their help bases. Their approaches to the financial system – Ghana’s foremost subject at current – differ. Whereas the NPP favours a personal sector progress method, the NDC needs to implement extra authorities intervention.
“These elections are distinctive as a result of the north will possible decide the winner for the primary time,” analyst Emmanuel Yeboah of the Ghana Heart for Democratic Improvement (CDD) advised Al Jazeera.
One among West Africa’s most affluent and secure economies, Ghana is thought for its largely peaceable transfers of energy and its general safety in a area the place armed teams maintain sway.
With 34 million folks, it’s the second-most populous nation within the area. The southern Akan group (46 p.c) is the most important ethnic group and most Ghanaians (71 p.c) are Christians. Accra is the capital metropolis and the foreign money is the cedi.
Here’s what that you must know concerning the vote:
How does voting work in Ghana?
- Ghanaians 18 and above are eligible. Some 18.8 million persons are registered to vote within the ninth basic elections since multiparty voting was reintroduced in 1992, following years of army rule. Turnout, on common, has been about 70 p.c in earlier elections.
- Voters will choose representatives for 276 parliamentary seats representing all constituencies.
- Voters will assemble at voting stations nationwide to obtain their poll papers from 7am West Africa Time (06:00 GMT).
- Of the 12 candidates vying for the highest job of president, there are two favourites: the candidates for the ruling NPP and opposition NDC events.
- The candidate who wins greater than half of votes solid wins the election. Within the occasion of no general majority, a run-off vote between the 2 with probably the most votes will happen, possible every week later.
- Outcomes of the election are anticipated by Monday, December 10.
Who’re the principle candidates for president?
The Electoral Fee of Ghana has permitted 12 presidential candidates, however it’s broadly accepted that the presidential election is a two-horse race between the established NPP and the opposition NDC.
Presidential energy has shifted between the 2 foremost events in shut elections since 1992. Neither get together, nevertheless, has managed to “break the eight” or win three consecutive presidential phrases. Presidential phrases are for 4 years and no particular person could serve greater than two phrases.
Mahamudu Bawumia
The 61-year-old Oxford graduate and former central financial institution deputy represents the ruling NPP and is a Muslim from the traditionally deprived north of the nation. He’s at present vice chairman of Ghana.
He was not a well-liked decide when he first campaigned to be President Akufo-Addo’s deputy in 2016, as he had not held a political put up earlier than.
As a key participant within the presidential financial administration staff, Bawumia has been blamed by the opposition for the nation’s monetary woes. In 2022, Ghana defaulted on its sovereign debt for the primary time, pushing inflation to unprecedented ranges.
In consequence, hovering meals costs, a scarcity of jobs for younger Ghanaians and different points have broken help for the NPP typically.
All through his marketing campaign for the presidential election, which ended on Thursday, Bawumia has blamed exterior elements like COVID-19 for these financial issues. His staff has additionally emphasised two of the federal government’s largest wins: free training for senior secondary college students since 2017 and a “one-district, one manufacturing facility” plan which has seen the federal government help the constructing of factories in lots of the 261 administrative districts, such because the Twyford Ceramics manufacturing facility which opened within the Shama District of the Western Area in 2021.
That technique appears to be working, analysts say. “Some three months in the past, many individuals really thought it was a transparent win for Mahama,” Yeboah of the CDD mentioned. “Proper now, it’s simply too near name.”
Nonetheless, Bawumia faces challenges, as many stay uncertain concerning the NPP authorities typically. In a rustic the place tribe and faith are inclined to affect how folks vote, the truth that Bawumia is a northerner, a Muslim and a non-Akan might additionally work towards him.
As the primary NPP candidate not from the Twi-speaking Akan group, he was pressured to run with Matthew Opoku Prempeh, a Christian Akan, as his deputy to appease the ruling get together’s conventional dwelling base.
If he wins, Bawumia will change into Ghana’s first Muslim president. The NPP would additionally, for the primary time, have gained three consecutive phrases in workplace.
John Dramani Mahama
Mahama, 66, of the opposition NDC get together, ascended to the presidency in 2012, after President John Atta Mills died. His tenure till 2016 was marked by turbulence: drastic energy cuts, regionally known as “dumsor”, earned him the nickname “Mr Dumsor”.
Authorities companies battled allegations of corruption and Mahama was additionally accused of receiving bribes from a businessman within the type of a Ford four-wheel drive in 2012.
When Mahama misplaced his second bid for the presidency to Akufo-Addo in 2016, he grew to become the primary incumbent to overlook out on a second time period. In 2020, he stood for president once more and misplaced to his rival.
Nonetheless, the politician, who can be from the north and is Christian, has campaigned on guarantees of a swift financial restoration from NPP rule.
He appeals principally to younger folks between the ages of 18 and 35, who make up 62 p.c of the voting inhabitants, in addition to to the NDC’s north and central area bases.
Alan Kyerematen
A former minister and ex-member of the NPP, Kyerematen, 69, exited the get together forward of chaotic and disputed primaries late in 2023.
As an impartial candidate backed by his Motion for Change get together, which he arrange in September 2023, Kyeremetan just isn’t anticipated to pose a lot of a problem to the NPP or NDC events. Nonetheless, analysts warn that he might steal NPP votes in its Akan strongholds, significantly in central Kumasi metropolis, the place the politician is from.
Nana Kwame Bediako
The actual property enterprise mogul, 44, is operating as an impartial candidate, backed by the New Power motion, which targets younger folks.
Earlier than he ventured into politics, Bediako was broadly referred to as a rich man with a penchant for aptitude, together with for as soon as maintaining pet tigers in his dwelling.
The announcement of his determination to face as a presidential candidate got here weeks after billboards in Accra confirmed a thriller, masked candidate, and piqued younger folks’s curiosity. Bediako has promised to finish the nation’s “mind drain” by creating extra jobs.
What are the important thing points?
Economic system
Ghana is within the throes of its worst economic crisis in a technology, regardless of being a number one producer of cocoa, gold and oil. Meals costs are hovering and the cedi has plunged in worth towards the greenback.
The peak of the nation’s financial disaster was in 2022, when Ghana didn’t make repayments on its exterior money owed – amounting to $30bn – for the primary time. Inflation had risen above 50 p.c by the tip of that 12 months and the nation was unable to provide funding for the next 12 months’s funds.
Energy blackouts are frequent because the Electrical energy Firm of Ghana (ECG) owes $1.6bn to personal energy suppliers. In October 2024, one provider, Sunon Asogli, suspended operations due to the money owed.
President Akufo-Addo’s authorities was pressured to hunt a $3bn Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) mortgage package deal to help the financial system, regardless that he had beforehand promised by no means to do that. This week, the IMF launched the third tranche of the mortgage, price $360m. The financial institution launched $600m in July 2023 and January 2024. Inflation has slowed to twenty p.c since 2020, however the price of dwelling stays onerous for a lot of.
The 2 foremost events differ of their method to fixing the financial system. Whereas the ruling NPP favours personal sector-led progress to spice up the financial system, the NDC needs to implement government-led interventionist insurance policies similar to massive, public infrastructure tasks in agriculture and manufacturing.
Unemployment
Unemployment has hit 14.7 p.c in Ghana, in accordance with authorities information from 2023. The shortage of jobs is prompting younger Ghanaians, significantly healthcare employees, to maneuver away from Ghana in what has been termed a “mind drain”.
Bawumia’s marketing campaign blames different elements for this: COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and even issues created throughout Mahama’s final presidency. The vice chairman has promised new financial methods: cancelling some taxes, similar to import duties on cellphones, for instance.
NDC’s Mahama, for his half, has made the financial system a cornerstone of his marketing campaign, promising to chop the variety of ministers to scale back authorities spending. He has known as Akufo-Addo and Bawumia’s IMF deal “reckless”.
Corruption
This week, a Ghanaian information web site, The Fourth Property, revealed that the nation’s Nationwide Service Authority, which recruits graduates to public workplaces, was paying salaries to 1000’s of “ghost employees”, though this declare has not been formally investigated.
Ghana ranked seventieth out of 180 international locations on the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2023, indicating excessive ranges of political corruption. Mahama of the NDC has promised an “Operation Return all Loot” and to focus on corrupt officers.
Unlawful mining and air pollution
Often called “galamsey”, unlawful gold mining is inflicting widespread devastation to water our bodies that hundreds of thousands rely upon for consumption and agriculture in Ghana.
Unemployment and better gold costs this 12 months have intensified galamsey, which includes digging up the topsoil and utilizing water and chemical compounds together with mercury and cyanide to clean it off and uncover items of gold. The soil flows again into water our bodies such because the River Pra, which is now a polluted murky brown color because of this. Farmers say the air pollution has crippled cocoa harvests.
In August, Ghana’s water authority mentioned it needed to reduce off 75 p.c of fresh water provides to communities, saying it couldn’t take away the dangerous chemical compounds and that it was unsafe to drink. The matter has prompted protests and accusations that the federal government is ineffective in stopping it. Some have known as it an “ecocide”.
Unlawful mining was principally confined to the south of the nation however has additionally unfold to the north, Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, nation head of the non-governmental group WaterAid Ghana, advised Al Jazeera.
Analysis by WaterAid exhibits that the communities the place unlawful mining is heaviest additionally endure well being points similar to chest ache, associated to their work and the polluted water. Nonetheless, when requested, unlawful miners say they haven’t any selection due to the shortage of jobs.
“You need to really feel sympathy for his or her state of affairs. Unemployment charges are excessive, and local weather change has resulted in much less dependable rainfall that’s affecting farming,” Yanyi-Akofur added.
By 2030, if issues don’t change, WaterAid predicts Ghana may run out of potable water altogether, and can be pressured to import water from its neighbours.
Might there be outbreaks of violence throughout these elections?
Whereas elections in Ghana have been largely peaceable prior to now, pockets of violence might be possible this time, specialists say.
“Some hotspots we’re watching are Accra and the Central Area, that are swing areas that any of the candidates might win,” analyst Yeboah of Ghana CDD mentioned.
Elements of the Northern Area, which is now tensely break up between Bawumia and Mahama, might additionally witness some violence, he mentioned.
