Ghana Election 2024: After prophecies, rallies, promises, Ghana votes Saturday

After a journey of prophecies, religious endorsements, huge rallies, tough talk and lofty promises, the 2024 election campaign reaches the final stage today, with two of 12 presidential candidates standing on the cusp of history.

The NPP’s Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and John Dramani Mahama of the NDC tilt the scales heavily in their favour against 10 others on the 2024 presidential ballot as the leading candidates of Ghana’s ninth presidential contest, at least per the projections of various polls and surveys.

With 18,774,159 million registered voters across 276 constituencies casting their ballots in 40,648 polling stations, the fate of the 12 candidates will be decided in Saturday’s elections.

While Dr Bawumia seeks to extend the NPP’s rule to an unprecedented third straight term, Mr Mahama could become the first to make a successful comeback to the presidency after completing an earlier term.

As they hoist themselves one last time on separate platforms ahead of the mandatory end to campaigning towards a major election, they have already projected themselves onto the front seats of public opinion as the front runners in the presidential race.

The NPP holds its final rally at the University of Ghana while the NDC will converge on Madina for its final rally today.

Credentials

Mr Mahama is regarded in various quarters as a credible candidate to seal the first successful comeback to the presidency in Ghana's political space after his exit in 2017 after a term in office.

Over the intervening eight years, his image has undergone rehabilitation, sometimes through the actions and performance of his opponents, with some of the fiercest critics of his administration publicly apologising to him for their supposedly naive opinions about him.

Indeed, he clawed back about half of the over 900,000 votes difference he gave away in the 2016 presidential election defeat in just four years and led the party to redeem lost grounds in Parliament in the 2020 elections in the most dramatic shift in parliamentary polls after a government's only first term.

He has based his latest bid on experience and past performance in government, touting the 24-hour economy policy as the game-changer needed to ramp up jobs for the youth.

Mr Mahama's chances come up against the candidature of Dr Bawumia, the Vice-President sometimes credited for the NPP's resounding victory in the 2016 polls.

An economist and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Bawumia ran the show of the elections campaign eight years ago with a lecture series that resonated with the average voter.

He digested issues of inflation, foreign exchange dynamics, unemployment rates, corruption, among others, and their impact on the living conditions of the people.

He has largely based his campaign on digitalisation, promoting it as the foundation for real development in the context of a new industrial revolution.

Heavyweights

The two candidates have combed the streets and corners of the regions and constituencies the entire year after scaling their respective internal primaries.

As various surveys have suggested, the 10 other candidates on the presidential ballot only make up the number for now, and may only become relevant in the event of a run-off.

Indeed, for virtually all of the last four years, the NPP and the NDC have practically directed every energy towards Saturday's elections.

Since 2012, the presidential contest has been a straight fight between the two, each of them winning on their strengths rather than having to rely on the support of the minority parties.

Evidence of their dominance sits in Parliament where only one independent candidate has a place in the finely balanced legislature of 137 members for each of the heavyweight parties.

Other candidates

Otherwise, the list of Daniel Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party, Christian Kwabena Andrews of the Ghana Union Movement, Kofi Akpaloo of the Liberal Party of Ghana, Mohammed Frimpong of the National Development Party, Nana Akosua Frimpomaa Kumankuma of the Convention People’s Party, Hassan Ayariga of the All People’s Congress, and independent candidates Kofi Koranteng, George Twum-Barima-Adu, Nana Kwame Bediako and Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen are nursing ambitious hopes of upsetting the stakes.

It has been established that the political stage has been tough for the smaller parties in the Fourth Republic and their lack of visibility in the current campaigning stage is only a reflection of their dwindling appeal.

In the past three elections, the minority parties have only been part of the statistics, with their overall performances unable to affect the outcome of any of the elections.

From their ranks, Mr Kyerematen’s yellow butterfly army christened Movement for Change and The New Force as advanced by Nana Bediako appear to have elbowed their fellow minority contestants to the fringes, with both of them drawing their main support bases from the Ashanti Region, the NPP’s stronghold.

The emergence of Mr Kyerematen and Nana Bediako for the 2024 elections has been considered in some circles as bad news for the NPP, given their Ashanti background, with Mr Kyerematen in particular departing from the fold of the NPP and taking away a few supporters of the party.

Indeed, having declined overtures to reverse his defection, his biggest impact, according to the polls and surveys, could be to weaken the base of the NPP and thereby strengthen the NDC’s chances.

NDP’s ambition

While the various smaller parties and the so-called minority candidates failed to take up the opportunity, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Party, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, told the Daily Graphic that he just returned from the Bono Region where he met with regional executives of the party to “at least stir up the voter numbers for us”.

He said he had gone to campaign in Tain on November 26 after which he went to Kumasi to visit some communities to campaign before returning to Accra.

“While I have been in Accra, I have visited and will visit some pockets of communities in the Greater Accra Region where we will hold community durbars as part of our campaign ahead of the December 7 polls,” Alhaji Frimpong said.

Bediako’s vision

Meanwhile, Nana Bediako delivered a compelling vision for Ghana at his turn at the GTV/GBC Presidential Encounters.

He emphasised industrialisation, economic freedom and equitable treatment of Ghanaian workers as key pillars of his agenda.  

“Our country has not been industrialised because of poor leadership. I am here to fix that,” he asserted.

Highlighting Ghana’s persistent challenges, he noted that “Ghana faces social, economic, and environmental challenges that need a bold leader to address”.  

Nana Bediako referenced his "12 Pillars for Economic Freedom", a comprehensive framework aimed at tackling systemic inefficiencies, stressing the importance of innovative strategies, including water-based transportation systems, to boost logistics and connectivity.

“The developed countries use water transportation for the movement of logistics. That has helped them move faster. This is what I want to do by connecting our waters,” he explained.  

He promised a transformative approach to education, focusing on practical learning and critical thinking to support industrialisation.

“I will overhaul the education system to encourage real thinking and practical learning to help in our industrialisation agenda,” Nana Bediako stated.  

He also addressed the plight of “underpaid professionals”, mentioning teachers, nurses, and security personnel in that category.

“The country has not treated our teachers fairly. The people who teach our children cannot be paid meagre salaries. Our nurses and security personnel and all our workers are not well paid.

I will change that and give decent salaries to workers,” he pledged.

He also advocated structural reforms in the entertainment industry to ensure that entertainers received royalties to sustain themselves and their families for generations.  

Stage set

Whatever happens on Saturday, the 2024 campaign stage has lived up to the billing.

The messaging has come in the form of direct appeal, opponent ridicule, denials and rebuttals, and sometimes outright criminal convictions of opponents.

But all of these have shaped the road and tampered with the fears of possible chaos as the campaign trail slides into the elections proper.

Beyond the presidential election, interest is high about which party will dominate the next Parliament following the controversies over the issues of the current Parliament.