Ghana Votes As Candidates Pitch Plan To Fight Inequalities, Poverty

Ghanaians have been voting for a new president and parliament in a country seen as one of the most democratic in West Africa.

Eleven candidates are in the race to unseat President Nana Akufo-Addo, who is running for his second term. His main challenger is his predecessor and 2016 opponent, John Dramani Mahama.

Here are some detailed voting stats in the election:

• Total number of registered valid Voters = 17,027,741
• Number of Males registered voters: 8,810283 (48.26%)
• Number of female registered Voters = 8,810,283 (51.7%)
• Total number of 18-21 Years old voters (First Time Voters) = 2,635,050 (15.5%)

The first time voters are very important because most of them benefited from the Free SHS policy implemented by the incumbent government, New Patriotic Party. There is also 6 more new regions created from three old regions and these new regions are voting as new regions for the very first time so it is difficult to speculate which party will win the new regions. Some are predicting the new regions voting pattern based on the pattern of voting of the regions they were created from. The Swing regions, however, remain Greater Accra with voter population of 3,528,995 (the highest) and Central region with voter population of 1,567,758. The general atmosphere of the country is calm and people are being educated by the media to eschew violence and put Ghana first. The Peace Campaign has been by far louder compared to previous elections in Ghana. But let’s hear what some of the concerns voters have are