‘Africa’s Clinton’ in presidential bid
Former leader’s wife among seven candidates in Ghana’s elections
THE wife of Ghana’s former leader, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, is standing for the presidency in an election that has seen her dubbed the African Hillary Clinton.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, 67, whose husband was a poster boy for populist African leaders, is the first woman to run for Ghana’s top office.
Like Clinton, Agyeman-Rawlings is a passionate advocate of women’s rights – and has also had to contend with the fact that her good-looking spouse has many female admirers.
Yesterday, the former first lady took centre stage as Ghana’s 15 million registered voters went to the polls.
She is one of six challengers to President John Mahama, who is seeking a second term in office amid discontent with the performance of the economy.
Agyeman-Rawlings’s campaign ticket is based on equal opportunities and “bold actions to put Ghana right again”.
Like Clinton, she also had her husband back her.
The tight presidential and parliamentary polls are seen as a litmus test of stability for Africa’s most secure democracy as it wrestles with a stumbling economy and corruption scandals.
Once praised by US President Barack Obama for its peaceful transfers of power, Ghana has come under fire amid reports of voter intimidation and questions over the independence of its election agency.
Mahama’s main rival appears to be veteran politician Nana Akufo-Addo, who has chipped away at the popularity of the ruling National Democratic Congress party by criticising the country’s sluggish growth and high-profile corruption scandals.
The winner will serve a fouryear term in a formerly booming country that has seen its economy slow, currency deteriorate and inflation soar.
An exporter of gold, cocoa and oil, Ghana was once hailed as a regional growth model but has now taken on too much debt, and last year had to go to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.
There are seven candidates battling for the top job and if the smaller parties perform well and deny either man a majority, a run-off will be held later this month.
Mahama, 58, is seeking a second term, with Akufo-Addo, 72, making his third – and likely final – bid for the highest office.
In the final days of the campaign, Mahama flexed his significant resources to reach as many battleground regions as possible where he inaugurated blockbuster infrastructure projects, including railways and airports.
“Mahama has done well for us,” Abudula Alhassan, 40, a driver in the northern town of Bole, said.
In contrast, Akufo-Addo has blasted Ghana’s poor economic growth which stood at 3.3% this year – the slowest rate in two decades – and has outlined detailed plans to get the economy back on track.
He has also lambasted Mahama’s government over a series of corruption scandals in which scores of judges have been implicated.
“We are facing a lot of problems economically, everything is messy,” Julie Amofah, 26, who voted in Kibi, a town 80km from the capital, Accra, said.
“I voted for change so we can move forward,” she said.