Akufo-Addo lauds Mahama for conceding defeat

Ghana’s president elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commended President John Dramani Mahama for conceding defeat in Wednesday’s presidential poll few minutes before the official declaration by the Electoral Commission.

The Electoral Commission was expected to declare the official results of the presidential poll, which ended Wednesday at 5:00pm on Saturday.

But in what has been described as an unexpected turn of events, the Commission declared the results some few minutes after the President’s concession of defeat in the election which Nana Akufo-Addo polled 5,716,026 representing 53.85% of the total votes cast.

President Mahama’s Friday night placed a call to Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party to concede defeat.

His concession, according to the presidency, was based on provisional figures from the Electoral Commission, which puts Nana Akufo-Addo in a comfortable lead at the time.

And Nana Akufo-Addo whose third attempt at the presidency paid quickly took to Facebook to applaud President Mahama of the gesture, which he has described as a show of statesmanship “I thanked him for this graceful gesture, which is in the finest traditions of Ghanaian statesmanship and, on my part, assured him of my cooperation for a successful transition,” Nana Akufo-Addo wrote.

The President-elect wrote in the post that the phone call from the President came in at exactly 7:51pm Friday and wished him the best of luck and “God’s blessings.

He said President Mahama has assured him of his “full cooperation in organizing the transition from his administration to mine.” “I also thanked him for his service to our nation and said that I felt sure that his contribution to the welfare of our Republic was by no means over,” he ended his post.

Earlier Thursday, presidential candidates of the Convention People’s Party, National Democratic Party, People’s National Convention and independent candidate called Nana Akufo-Addo to congratulate him when provisional figures from the various constituencies showed he was leading.

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