Afrigather Ghana’s ruling NPP celebration on Saturday elected the nation’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia as their candidate for the 2024 presidential poll, in line with outcomes from primaries launched by the electoral fee.
Ghana is present process its worst financial disaster in years, which will likely be a serious electoral situation subsequent 12 months when President Nana Akufo-Addo steps down after two phrases and an settlement for a $3 billion mortgage from the Worldwide Financial Fund.
Based on the ultimate outcomes, Bawumia received 61.4 p.c of the votes whereas this nearest rival Kennedy Ohene Agyapong received 37.4 p.c.
Bawumia, a former deputy central financial institution governor, had been broadly touted by pollsters to win the New Patriotic Occasion (NPP) candidacy. He’ll face opposition Nationwide Democratic Congress candidate, ex-president John Dramani Mahama on the finish of subsequent 12 months.
Bawumia had already received the primary spherical of NPP voting and because the first Muslim candidate to guide the ethnic Akan and southern-dominated celebration, he had positioned himself to bridge a few of Ghana’s regional divisions.
“It is a victory for the rank and file of our nice celebration and significantly to the grass root members. I’m humbled and overwhelmed,” he mentioned in a speech after the outcomes.
“We all know that the NPP is the one celebration that may remodel Ghana. The NPP will enter 2024 united and energised.”
– ‘Truthful and clear’ –
“I imagine the celebration has been honest and clear,” his rival Agyapong mentioned after the consequence.
“That’s the solely factor I’ve all the time been preaching. My grassroots have spoken and subsequently I settle for the ends in good religion.”
A significant cocoa and gold producer, Ghana additionally has oil and gasoline reserves. However its debt load has expanded and like different sub-Saharan African nations it has struggled with the financial fallout from the worldwide pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine struggle.
Ghana signed the take care of the IMF final 12 months because the nation sought to shore up its public funds and higher handle rising debt and its native foreign money.
It just lately reached settlement on the phrases for a second cost of $600 million out of the $3-billion credit score deal.
However the financial scenario is difficult. A number of hundred opposition protesters rallied in Ghana’s capital Accra final month to denounce the financial disaster, blaming it on the central financial institution governor’s insurance policies.
President Akufo-Addo has led the nation since 2017 and can step down after serving the 2 phrases allowed by the structure. Opposition candidate Mahama misplaced to Akufo-Addo within the 2016 and 2020 elections.
