Ghana president concedes defeat, sparking opposition joy

ACCRA: Ghana’s President John Mahama conceded defeat on Friday two days after a hotly contested election, seen as a test for a country generally viewed as a beacon of stability in west Africa.

Mahama called to congratulate opposition leader Nana AkufoAddo, whose supporters had already gathered outside his modest house as media had given him a clear lead after Wednesday’s polls.

“Yes he has conceded defeat,” George Lawson of Mahama’s New Democratic Congress (NDC) party said, after Wednesday’s nail-biting poll.

“He called to concede and we are ecstatic,” spokesman Oboshie Sai Cofie of Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) said.

In the end Akufo-Addo won the presidential election with 53 per cent of votes cast, said the country’s electoral commission, whose head Charlotte Osei pronounced AkufoAddo’s victory Friday evening, calling it her “privilege”.

The erudite 72-year-old human rights lawyer’s victory tapped into an electorate fed up with economic fiascos and corruption scandals, on a platform promising to boost growth and deliver jobs.

In the garden of Akufo-Addo’s house in the country’s capital of Accra, a jubilant crowd — almost all in headto-toe white, a symbol of victory - had been dancing on the lawn for hours.

At one point, they broke out in an enthusiastic a capella rendition of Ghana’s national anthem.

Outside in the streets, a crowd of hundreds dressed in NPP colours of red, white and blue blowing horns and whistles had been gathering for hours.