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Opposition Candidate Wins Ghanaian Presidency

By Scott Stearns
Dakar
03 January 2009

Tax law professor John Atta-Mills is Ghana's next president. The opposition candidate won a hard-fought, much-delayed election that was ultimately decided by fewer than 50,000 votes.

With results in from Ghana's final electoral constituency, Atta-Mills won with 50.23 percent of the vote, narrowly beating ruling-party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo's 49.77 percent.

Electoral Commission Chairman Kwado Afari-Gyan named Atta-Mills the winner.

"On the basis of the official results given, it is my duty to declare Professor John Evans Atta-Mills president-elect of the Republic of Ghana," he said.

Atta-Mills supporters outside the Electoral Commission celebrated his win. In his third run for the presidency, the 64-year-old lawyer withstood two rounds of voting and a special election in a single constituency Friday to claim victory over the National Patriotic Party of outgoing president John Kufuor.

Ruling-party candidate Akufo-Addo conceded defeat, acknowledging the electoral commission's decision and congratulating Atta-Mills.

Atta-Mills said he hopes the two parties can work together to build a better country and congratulated Akufo-Addo for giving him a good fight. He assured Ghanians that he will be a president for all the people and said there will be no discrimination against those who voted against him.

Atta-Mills not only captured the presidency but led his National Democratic Congress party to big gains in parliament, ending the ruling party's legislative majority by winning 114 of the 228 seats in Ghana's parliament.

Atta-Mills narrowly lost the first round of voting December 7. But because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes cast, he and Akufo-Addo went head-to-head last Sunday in a vote that was to decide the winner.

That all changed when a shortage of ballot papers in the remote Tain district forced another round of voting there Friday. With nearly nine million ballots cast, Atta-Mills led by just 23,000 votes.

The ruling party boycotted Tain's delayed voting over what it said were security concerns. But the poll went ahead with no reported problems as hundreds of soldiers and police were deployed to keep order. Atta-Mills won by nearly 18,000 votes, securing his victory.

Both parties accused the other of vote fraud, but Electoral Chairman Gyan said the commission did not find the evidence provided sufficient to invalidate the overall result.

Atta-Mills is a former national tax commissioner who served as vice president to Jerry Rawlings who came to power in a coup 27 years ago. Mr. Rawlings introduced some economic and political reforms before handing over to President Kufuor in 2001.

Atta-Mills is from Ghana's central region. He studied law at London's School of Oriental and African Studies and at Stanford Law School in California as a Fulbright scholar. He is an avid swimmer and played on Ghana's national field hockey team. He and wife Ernestina Naadu Mills have a 19-year-old son.