Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bumia admitted defeat in the elections held on Saturday and congratulated the opposition candidate., Former President John Mahama on the occasion of his victory.
“People voted for change,” Bawumia said.
The election comes amid the country's worst economic crisis in a generation, which has seen the cost of basic goods soar, while young people have struggled to get jobs and the country has been unable to pay its debts.
Despite Bumia's concession, no official results have been announced.
The Electoral Commission said the results were delayed because supporters of the two main parties were obstructing the process and asked police to evacuate vote-counting centers.
Mahama's supporters took to the streets across the country to celebrate, chanting, waving flags, honking horns and riding motorcycles.
“I am very excited about this victory,” Salifu Abdul Fatawu told the BBC in the central city of Kumasi.
He said he hoped this would mean he and his brother could get jobs, while food and fuel prices would fall.
Nana, an NPP supporter, even admitted, “My party is the NPP, but everything they did was not good.
“The system was very bad in an election year so most people were not happy.”
Although the elections were generally peaceful, two people were shot dead on Saturday in two separate incidents, while the Electoral Commission office in the northern town of Damongo was destroyed, allegedly by NDC supporters angry at the delay in announcing the results.
Ghanaians expected the preliminary results to be announced within hours of the closing of the polls, but the head of the Electoral Commission called for patience, noting that she had 72 hours to announce the results.
Warehouses in Damongo and Tamale in the north were also looted.
Bawumia said he based his concession on internal statistics of the ruling New Patriotic Party.
He added that these results show that Mahama won “decisively”, while the opposition National Democratic Congress also won the parliamentary elections.
Mahama confirmed that Bawumia called him to congratulate him on his “certain victory.”
The National Democratic Congress Party said earlier that its internal results showed Mahama winning with 56% of the votes, compared to 41% for Bawumia.
The vice president said he accepted defeat before the official announcement of the results “to avoid further tension and maintain peace in our country.”
The US Embassy in the capital, Accra, congratulated Ghana on the “successful elections.”
President Nana Akufo-Addo is stepping down after reaching the official maximum of two terms in office.
Mahama (65 years old) previously led Ghana from 2012 until 2017, when he was replaced by Akufo-Addo. Mahama also lost the 2020 election, so this win represents an amazing comeback.
Since the return of multi-party politics to Ghana in 1992, the National Democratic Congress and the National Progressive Party have alternated in power.
No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in power – a trend that looks set to continue.
Mahama's previous period in office was marred by a faltering economy, frequent power outages and corruption scandals.
However, Ghanaians hope it will be different this time.
During the campaign, Mahama promised to turn Ghana into a “24-hour economy.”
In Tamale, Jagia Wan, an NDC supporter, told the BBC: “We handed them over (the NDP) and thought they could run the country well, but they failed, and we are in power again.”
“John Mahama is the right man to rule this country. We are fed up.”
The new president will be sworn in on January 7, 2025.
Additional reporting by Natasha Botti
