Akufo-Addo victory sparks massive celebration in Kumasi

A festive atmosphere took over the streets of Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city—as thousands of jubilant Akufo-Addo supporters honked car horns, banged on pots and cheered to celebrate the President’s re-election victory in the country’s elections.

“I could dance and scream all day long,” Afia Serwaa, a retired teacher told Dailymailgh.com from the New Patriotic Party’s Ashanti Regional secretariat Wednesday evening.

“I know Nana Akufo-Addo is the best man to change Ghana”, Serwaa said.

The lively crowd of people, most of whom disregarded COVID-19 safety protocols, danced, played music deep into the night.

Streets were closed to traffic as large crowds of people kept arriving to the sound of car horns. Some waved NPP miniature flags. Many wore party T-shirts.

“I was getting ready for this day for a long time,” Kofi Oteng, who joined the crowd outside the NPP regional secretariat, told Dailymailgh.com. “This week was super stressful just waiting for the results to come in, but this is a great feeling and Ghana feels alive again.”

Supporters of the main opposition NDC were noticeably not found though that is unsurprising: Ashanti Region continues to be the stronghold where over 74 per cent of people voted for Akufo-Addo.

The NDC supporters protested in other parts of the country, refusing to accept defeat and pushing unfounded theories that widespread voter fraud was “stealing” Mr Mahama’s quest to hold the top job.

The Electoral Commission finally declared President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo winner of the 2020 election, having obtained 51.59% of the total votes cast as against Mahama’s 6,214,889 representing 47.36%. Akufo-Addo polled a total of 6,730,413 votes out of the total 13,434,574.

With Akufo-Addo’s victory, the country is poised to kick-start an economy that has been damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic but has been tipped to recover faster than originally predicted.

It was his fourth shot at the presidency, his first successful run having been his third attempt. On Sunday Akufo-Addo said he hoped to be retained on 7 December to complete his tenure and, in his own words, “build on the solid foundation laid in the first term”.