Ghanaians will head to the polls to elect a new President on December 7 in a contest that would see sitting Vice President Muhamudu Bawumia and former President John Dramani Mahama slug it out for who replaces two term President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Opinion polls suggest that Mr. Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is favoured to win against the ruling New Patriotic Party candidate Mr. Bawumia, eleven other candidates are also running.
Global InfoAnalytics, an Accra-based research group, released poll results on Monday that saw Mahama winning 52%, followed by 41.3% for Bawumia. The poll has a 1.9% error margin.
It found that voters were mainly concerned about the economy, jobs, education and infrastructure. Ghanaians are currently facing inflation and are struggling to meet up with daily living in Ghana’s worst economic crisis in a generation.
Mahama invested heavily in infrastructure during his 2012-17 presidency, when he faced criticism for power shortages and economic instability. His government was also embroiled in corruption allegations, although Mahama was never directly accused.
Most Ghanaians see Bawumia, an economist and former central banker, as extension of Mr. Akufu-Addo’s rule even as he has pledged to revamp the economy and improve livelihoods.
Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer, defaulted on most of its $30 billion external debt in 2022 after years of overstretched borrowing.
Akufo-Addo’s government secured a 3-year, $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in 2023 and is now on the final lap of a painful process required for the money to be disbursed.
The Economist Intelligence Unit predicted an NDC win in October due to the NPP’s economic record. Fitch Solutions published a similar forecast that month.
Both Mahama and Bawumia are from northern Ghana, a historic NDC stronghold where the NPP has been making inroads. With Reuters report
