Ghana’s opposition on Wednesday indicated its intention to challenge the validity of the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections announced by the country’s electoral commission.
The opposition rejected the results which showed incumbent Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had secured a second four-year term after winning Monday’s presidential election with about 51.59 percent of votes.
Akufo-Addo’s closest challenger, John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, came in second with 47.36 percent.
Haruna Iddrisu, a member of parliament for the NDC said it was “impossible” to accept such a result which was arrived at a “hurried conclusion” in the face of “overwhelming evidence”.
“We intend to take decisive and concrete steps, both with the presidential and parliamentary results, to overturn this brazen and shameless attack on our democracy,” Iddrisu told journalists in the capital Accra.
Tensions in the politically-stable West African country flared on Tuesday after Mahama claimed to have secured a parliamentary majority while cautioning Akufo-Addo against rigging the vote. Mahama accused his opponent of employing the military to alter the result of the exercise.
“You cannot use the military to try and overturn some of the results in constituencies that we have won. We will resist any attempts to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghanaian people,” Mahama said at the time.
Akufo-Addo, on his part, called for peace in the nation which has witnessed seven peaceful transitions of power since its last coup in 1981.
“Now is the time, irrespective of political affiliations, to unite, join hands and stand shoulder to shoulder,” the 76-year-old told his supporters on Wednesday.
The two rivals last week signed a symbolic peace agreement in a bid to maintain the country’s standing as a model of democracy in the region.
