We Now Have One Ghana, President Atta-Mills Promises
GHANA’S new president-elect John Atta-Mills on Saturday promised an inclusive style of government after a tightly-fought political battle for the leadership . His opponent, Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), conceded defeat but insisted there had been irregularities in the conduct of the poll, deemed exemplary by African standards.
| News Videos | Cartoons | Entertainment | U.K. | U.S. | Take Our Poll | Sports | World | Follow Us On Twitter
President Yudhoyono's Party Gains Support: Polls | Daunting Tasks Await Sheikh Wajed: Bangladesh
Atta-Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took 50.23 percent of the vote, against 49.77 percent for Nana Akufo-Addo, the electoral commission said.
A partial runoff vote was held in one constituency on Friday, which the NPP boycotted. But the electoral commission rejected accusations of fraud. The NPP has now lost the presidency and control of parliament.
“I want to assure Ghanaians that I will be a president for all. There will be no discrimination. The elections are over, we now have one Ghana,” Atta-Mills promised .
He said he hoped to be able to work together with Akufo-Addo “to build a better Ghana for all”.
In a speech to his supporters Akufo- Addo first conceded defeat and congratulated his rival.
“I acknowledge the electoral commission’s declaration and I congratulate Professor Atta-Mills,” he said , regretting that Ghana “is today a divided country”.
He pledged to do his part in fostering “continuation and consensus”, but went on to say the party would go to court over “the illegalities” in the conduct of the poll. He gave no more details.
Theodore Dzeble, spokesperson for the domestic observer coalition, Codeo, said Akufo-Addo was having difficulty coming to terms with having lost and by a very narrow margin.
“People are working with him behind the scenes to get him to concede. It’ll take time but I’m sure he will concede…we just have to probably give him more time…he’s a democrat himself – he has a track record of service to Ghana,” he said.
“If he wants to retain his credibility as an astute politician in Ghana he has no choice but to concede,” he added.
NDC supporters in white campaign T-shirts thronged the streets of Accra, cheering and honking car horns.
Election observers insisted on the importance of an inclusive government after such a tightly-fought contest, where Atta-Mills won by a margin of just 40000 votes out of some nine million cast.
“This has been a very competitive election.…It important to put the election campaign behind (us) and reach across the political divide because in a mature democratic system both government and opposition play an important role,” said chief European Union observer Nickolay Mladenov.
“The new government will have to consolidate the achievements of the previous administration,” he said, citing its track record of development and protection of civil rights and liberties under the leadership of John Kufuor.
The NDC won a majority in legislative elections on December 7 and now has 114 seats in the 230-seat parliament, against 107 for the NPP.
Atta-Mills, a law professor, was running for president for the third time; he lost the previous two elections to outgoing President John Kufuor.
He served as vice-president to the charismatic former leader Jerry Rawlings from 1997 to 2000.
Kufuor will hand over to Atta-Mills on Wednesday.
Ghana, regarded as a beacon of democracy in West Africa, will start pumping oil in 2010. The elections were its fifth since a return to multi- party democracy in 1992.
The polls were closely watched as a test of how strong Ghana’s democracy is.
Last month Guinea, Africa’s second-oldest independent state, was rocked by a bloodless coup, moments after the death of its longtime president Lansana Conte.
Mauritania’s first democratically elected leader was meanwhile ousted in a coup in August.
| News Videos | Cartoons | Entertainment | U.K. | U.S. | Take Our Poll | Sports | World | Follow Us On Twitter
