Ekip
10 December 2016•Update: 11 December 2016
By Umaru Sanda Amadu
ACCRA, Ghana
Opposition leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was declared winner of the presidential election, the Electoral Commission said late Friday.
President John Dramani Mahama called Akufo-Addo to concede defeat.
“President JD Mahama has called, a while ago, to congratulate Nana Addo for winning the 2016 Presidential Elections based on the projections of the EC,” according to a Facebook post by his aide, Stan Dogbe.
Akufo-Addo, a 72-year-old lawyer, led the New Patriotic Party to victory after a third attempt that he began in 2008.
A former Foreign Affairs Minister and one-time Attorney General, Akufo-Addo campaigned on a promise of fighting corruption and increasing factories across the country.
He collected more than 5.7 million votes to defeat incumbent Mahama who just completed his first four-year term. His government came under heavy criticism and was accused of superintending over corruption.
Akufo-Addo beat out six other candidates in a keen contest to become president of the former British colony.
More than 15.7 million Ghanaians registered for the polls that were conducted Wednesday.
At the parliamentary level, his party swept 170 of the 275-seat legislature.
Akufo-Addo becomes the fifth President of Ghana since the return to constitutional rule in 1992 -- breaking a popular joke that only persons with the name John can be president in Ghana.
He will formally assume the office of the president Jan. 7.
