Former President John Dramani Mahama wins elections again in Ghana eight years after losing power
The Ghanaian historian and politician John Dramani Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, was proclaimed winner in the last presidential elections that took place in 2024 in Africa, thus returning to the position he lost in the 2016 elections. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang , who was already Minister of Education in Mahama’s previous term, will be the vice president. The voting in Ghana, held on December 7, closes an intense electoral cycle on the continent, in a year in which almost a third of the countries have gone to the polls. The elections passed without major surprises, confirming the good democratic health of this West African country, located in a geographical context marked in recent years by coups d’état and authoritarian drifts. The victory, with 56.55% of the votes, represents the largest advantage since the 1992 elections, the first of the fourth republic. However, voter turnout is the lowest of the last six votes. 60.9% of voters went to the polls, almost 20% less than four years ago. The decline in participation has fundamentally affected the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which is now in opposition, as Mahama has only slightly improved its 2020 results.
Economy and mining
Voters in Ghana came to elections marked by five key issues, according to journalist Kent Mensah in The Africa Report after analyzing data from several surveys: unemployment, economic management, infrastructure, health and education, of which the first two are the ones that concern Ghanaians the most. In addition, unemployment hits especially hard at the young population, the majority in this West African country. These concerns are largely a reflection of Ghana’s many challenges. Among them, there are two topics that have focused many of the analyzes on the country in recent times: the economic situation and illegal mining. Mary Kyere Kusi, a Ghanaian political scientist, emphasizes this in conversation with News Now Nigeria, when she states that “the economic part is very important, although that encompasses a lot, such as the infrastructure part and, above all, the employment part, because we must prevent young people from leaving the country.
In 2022, burdened by debt, the country declared bankruptcy and requested a bailout from the IMF of 3 billion dollars. In less than 20 years, its debt has multiplied by more than ten, going from 6,000 to more than 60,000 million dollars. Along with the problem of debt, increased by unemployment, the growth of inflation, the depreciation of the currency and the lack of investments, there is that of illegal mining, known as galamseywhich none of the past governments have managed to resolve.
Mary Kyere Kusi believes that, in addition to focusing on economic recovery, it is important to try to tackle the problem of illegal mining because “many people are trying to get into mining to make money.” However, he is also aware that the problem of the extractive sector is very complex due to all the interests behind it. Kyere warns that although this is not a recent problem, “people have now realized why 60% of the water in the country is contaminated, and Ghana, which makes its living from agriculture, is highly dependent on water.”
With gold as the country’s main export, mineral extraction is causing serious environmental damage that is directly affecting the populations living around the mines. The contamination of water and land is leading to infections and diseases that affect, above all, the little ones, as in the case of yaws. The emergency situation has a national scope, which has justified the calling of marches and protests even in the capital, Accra (see MN 707, p. 17). Pollution caused by gold mining is also affecting Ghana’s third largest export, cocoa.
Four years of challenges
Mahama and Opoku-Agyemang have numerous open fronts before them to respond to the expectations that Ghanaians have placed on the NDC. To this end, they will try to implement the proposals they announced during the campaign, among which the creation of a development bank for women, the reduction of university fees, the establishment of free secondary education, the elimination of some taxes and the legalization of okada (motorists who provide taxi service). However, the star measure has to do with the increase in economic activity until reaching the “24-hour economy.” Mahama seeks to ensure that key sectors such as industry function constantly to re-boost the economy and promote employment. Kyere sees compliance with this measure as “complicated” and, although he estimates that it can be achieved, he does not believe “that it will be 100% effective.”
Despite the heavy defeat, the NPP candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia – who could have become the first Ghanaian Muslim president after having served as vice president with Akufo-Addo – acknowledged his defeat even before the results were announced. For the political scientist, this movement was not surprising, given that “seeing such clear results, with such a difference, even if they had not finished counting the votes, the results were not going to change much.”
Mahama, who lost the elections in 2016 on suspicion of corruption, now has a second chance at the head of the Executive. In a country where, as professors Gretchen Bauer and Akosua Keseboa denounce in The Conversation, The electoral system keeps women away from Parliament, the presence of a woman in a high position, in this case the vice presidency, can be differential. Kyere has confidence in her and believes that she can have an indirect impact because “seeing an empowered woman in a position of power motivates girls and women,” as well as a direct impact on the development of gender policies, since “it does not “It is the same as a man making a policy aimed at women, because he does not know the specific needs of women.” The challenges are, therefore, very numerous and the new Executive will have four years to try to address them.
