In a carnival of drums, horns, and revving motorbikes, Ghana’s ruling party and opposition candidates on Thursday rallied thousands of supporters for their final campaigning before a tightly contested weekend presidential election.
Saturday’s vote has emerged as a close race between ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, current Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, and former president and NDC party flag-bearer John Mahama, who says he deserves another shot at the top seat.
Africa’s top gold producer and a major cacao exporter, Ghana has long been an investor favourite and bastion of democratic stability in a region hit by recent coups, constitutional challenges and insurgencies.
But the West African state’s struggling economy dominated the campaign for the presidential and parliamentary elections after a debt crisis, a sliding currency and double-digit inflation prompted a default and a $3- billion IMF credit deal.
Outside a university sports stadium in the capital, Accra, Bawumia looked to rally supporters by reeling out statistics he said backed government advances in education, health, food security, and digitalisation of the economy — one of his keynote areas — compared to Mahama’s past government.
“On what basis does John Mahama want to come back?” the NPP candidate told the crowd to blaring horns and whistles.
“I don’t need a honeymoon. I know what I want to do from day one in the presidency.”
Motorbike taxi riders wearing the party’s blue, red and white colours rode in early to the rally, kicking up storms of dust with their wheels in celebration as campaign music blared out from a main stage.
With a campaign slogan “Break the 8” — a reference to going past current President Nana Akufo-Addo’s limit of two, four-year terms — Bawumia hopes to deliver the NPP an unprecedented third term in power.
Eyes on economy
The former central bank official and UK-educated economist sometimes struggled to distance himself from criticism over Akufo-Addo’s handling of the economy, as he was chief of the president’s economic management team.
Inflation has dropped from around 54 percent to 23 percent, but still many Ghanaians are worried about the cost of living enough to make it one of their major election concerns.
Results are expected on Tuesday from Saturday’s election to select a new parliament and decide the successor to Akufo-Addo — who must step down after two terms.
At the nearby rival campaign for Mahama’s National Democratic Party, his supporters packed out a dusty community park, where posters and T-shirts promised to “Reset Ghana Right” and “Stop the 8”.
“The time to reset our country is now. Saturday’s election is not just another election, it is a defining moment,” Mahama told supporters.
“This is not a decision we can leave for another time.”
For Mahama, president from 2012 to 2017, concerns over the economy present an opportunity to paint Bawumia as part of a failing policy.
Still, critics point out that Mahama himself oversaw a period of major power blackouts in Ghana and say he offers nothing new after two past failed presidential bids.
With both top candidates coming from the north of Ghana, which was traditionally an NDC stronghold, the region and the capital area of Greater Accra are set to be key battlegrounds on Saturday.
Ghana, alongside its coastal West African neighbours Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast, face increasing risks from violent spillover from jihadist conflicts to the north in Burkina Faso and Niger.
But along with the high cost of living, the economic and ecological damage from illegal gold mining has also been a major election issue.
Akufo-Addo’s government promised to stamp out the practice but it has spread with the rise in gold prices.
