Ghanaians give ex-president Mahama a chance to eclipse his shaky legacy

Honeymoon period will be short as John Mahama tries to fix economy, seen as a huge factor in election

Ghana's electoral commission had been due to announce the official results of Saturday's presidential election by Tuesday. But by Sunday morning Mahamudu Bawumia, the country's vice-president and the flag-bearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and his campaign team had seen enough to give up.

The data from our own internal collation of the results indicates that ... John Mahama has won the presidential election decisively," he said at a press conference after calling his rival to concede. By Monday, the commission had confirmed the outcome: the former president Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had indeed won with 56% of the vote to Bawumia's 41%.