The Election Commission (EC) said the results were delayed because supporters of the two main parties were obstructing the process and it asked police to clear assembly centers.

Mahama supporters took to the streets across the country to celebrate, cheer, wave flags, honk their horns and rev their motorcycles.

“I’m so excited about this victory,” Salifu Abdul-Fatawu told the BBC in Kumasi, in the center of the country.

He said he hoped it would mean he and his brother would find jobs, while the price of food and fuel would fall.

Even NPP supporter Nana admitted that “my party is the NPP, but whatever they did, it was not good.

“The system was so bad in an election year that most people were not happy.”

Although the elections were generally peaceful, two people were shot dead in separate incidents on Saturday, while the electoral commission office in the northern town of Damongo was apparently destroyed. he said by NDC supporters angry at the delays in announcing the results.

Ghanaians expected the first results to be announced within hours of polling closing, but the head of the Electoral Commission asked for patience, stressing that it had 72 days to declare the results.

Warehouses were also looted in Damongo and Tamale, also in the north.

Bawumia said he was basing his concession on the internal performance of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He said this shows that Mahama won “decisively”, while the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) also won the parliamentary elections.

Mahama confirmed that Bawumia had called him to congratulate him on his “categorical victory”.

The NDC had earlier said its internal results showed Mahama winning 56% of the vote to Bawumia’s 41%.

The vice president said he accepted defeat before the results were officially announced “to avoid further tensions and preserve the peace of our country.”

The US embassy in Accra, the capital, congratulated Ghana on “a successful election”.

President Nana Akufo-Addo resigns after reaching the official two-term limit.

Mahama, 65, led Ghana from 2012 until 2017, when he was replaced by Akufo-Addo. Mahama also lost the 2020 elections, so this victory represents a resounding comeback.