Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has picked incumbent president, Nana Akufo-Addo, as its presidential candidate in the 2020 election, setting up a third consecutive head-to-head battle against former president John Dramani Mahama.
Akufo-Addo, 76, unseated Mahama in 2016 with 53.8% of the vote, cementing the gold, and cocoa producing West African nation’s reputation as a leading democracy in a region that has earned notoriety for political instability.
Akufo-Addo who emerged the sole candidate for the party for election 2020 at the close of nominations for the Flagbearer of the NPP, would be going into his fourth consecutive presidential contest since 2008.
He represented the party in the 2008 Presidential elections, won the first round of voting with more than 49 per cent of the vote, but lost to Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the second round of voting.
Mahama, 61, who has been chosen by the National Democratic Congress as its candidate, defeated Akufo-Addo, in the 2012 presidential race.
Akufo-Addo will contest the December 7 poll with Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia as his running mate, the NPP said in a statement on Saturday.
Akufo-Addo urged NPP party members.
Condemning his opposition’s party, Akufo-Addo said; “We have a good story to tell, and we should go out to tell it. On every sector of our lives, we should show the difference between the NPP way of tackling problems, and the way our opponents do it,
“We grow the economy, they shrink the economy. We create the properly regulated, enabling atmosphere for business to flourish, they allow chancers and speculations to lure citizens into putting their monies into dodgy enterprises. They bring our banks and financial services to near collapse, and we have to clean up, shore up, and restore confidence.” (NAN)
