Ghana presidential candidate selects first female running mate for major party

Former Ghana President John Mahama said on Monday that he had chosen Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman as his running mate for this year’s election, making her the first woman on a major Ghanaian party’s presidential ticket.

The Dec. 7 poll will pit Mahama, who governed from 2012 to early 2017, against his successor, President Nana Akufo-Addo, who defeated him in the late 2016 election.

Opoku-Agyeman, 69, is a former education minister and university professor. She became the first female vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in 2008, according to the announcement on Mahama’s Facebook page.

He called her “God-fearing, a distinguished scholar, a conscientious public servant and a role model”.

Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia were formally nominated last month by their New Patriotic Party (NPP) to contest the election.

The presidency has changed hands repeatedly between the NPP and Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) since 1992 in a series of peaceful elections that have cemented Ghana’s reputation as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies.