Eyes on woman candidate as Ghana heads to polls
With two old rivals facing off in Ghana’s presidential election on Monday amid familiar economic woes, many voters are paying more attention to a new element in the political mix — the first ever woman vice-presidential candidate for a major party.
West Africa’s second-largest economy has one of the highest levels of women-owned businesses in the world, yet just 13% of parliamentary seats are held by women.
Former education minister Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman hopes that the decision of Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to nominate her as its candidate for vice-president
will inspire other women to enter politics.
“Many are those who are now more energised to vote,
thanks to the momentous decision,” Opoku-Agyeman, 69, said on the campaign trail in July after her nomination, promising to hold the door open for other women.
She and the NDC’s presidential candidate, John Mahama, a former president of Ghana, are running against the incumbent, President Nana Akufo-Addo, and Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party.
Some commentators saw her nomination as a politically astute move by the NDC to gain an edge in the race.
“It ’ s a win, regardless of whether she wins,” tech entrepreneur Kafui Anson-Yevu said in Accra.
She and her friends hoped the nomination was a starting point for women entering national politics.