Incumbent President Johna Mahama of Ghana has been declared winner of l the presidential election.A report from Ghana by Dr Jibrin Ibrahim said “At 9:50 p.m. on Sunday 9th December 2012, Dr. Afari Gyan, the Chair of Ghana’s Electoral Commission declared President John Mahama winner of the December 7th election with 50.70% of the votes cast while his main opponent scored 47.74%. Over eleven million people voted with the huge turnout of 79.43% of the electorate.”Dr Ibrahim who works for the Centre for Democracy and Development in Nigeria is reporting from the IDEG/CFI Situation Room in Accra .
In a piece shortly before the official announcement, Dr Ibrahim had predicted Mahama’s victory .According to Ibrahim: “Sunday afternoon and evening have been extremely tense as all Ghanaians await the formal declaration of the results of the presidential election. Most media have shown that President John Mahama was the first touch winner of the 2012 elections with slightly over 50% while the contest had slightly below 49% with most of the votes counted. The Electoral Commission has however not yet made the announcement and the media estimates were tracked through official Electoral Commission reports from the constituencies which showed that the President has won statistically.
“Tension started rising on Saturday when the General Secretary of the opposition NPP declared that that their candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo had won with 51% of the votes while the President obtained 45% of the vote. No one apparently took the announcement seriously because the major revelation of the election was that all parties except the two leading ones have essentially been wiped out as players in the electoral system and the five of them are likely to get a cumulative score of less than 1% of the vote”,he added.
With Reports By Dr Jibrin Ibrahim in Accra
See Related article: Ghana Decides 2012; Fourth Report: Awaiting the Verdict- By Jibrin Ibrahim
