| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Ghana's ruling party candidate admits defeat in presidential election |
| 2009-01-04 |
| (Xinhua) -- Ghana's ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo conceded defeat on Saturday in the country's presidential election, agencies' reports said. Akufo-Addo made the announcement after the Ghana Electoral Commission announced on Saturday that opposition leader John Atta Mills wins Ghana's presidential election. The ruling party's candidate also congratulated Mills on his victory. Commission chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said the results of a presidential run-off showed that Mills, candidate of the National Democratic Congress, won 50.23 percent of the votes against 49.77 percent for the ruling New Patriotic Party's candidate Akufo-Addo. Afari-Gyan announced on Dec. 10 that neither Akufo-Addo nor Mills obtained the required 50 percent of votes needed for an outright win. In the first round of election which was held on Dec. 7, Akufo-Addo secured 4,159,439 votes, or 49.13 percent of the total valid counts, while Mills gained 4,056,634 votes, or 47.92 percent. Ghana recorded nationwide voter population of 12,472,758 for the 2008 elections and the turnout was 69.52 percent in the first round. A total of eight candidates were involved in the presidential race. Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Convention Peoples Party came third with some 1.34 percent of the votes, while the rest five contenders garnered even smaller shares during the Dec.7 vote. |
| Posted by:Fred |