2016 – being an election year – will be fraught with scheming and rebellion of all sort, but God Himself, at the polls, will choose the next President of Ghana. That is the prophecy of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams.

The founder of the Christian Action Faith Ministries (CAFM) said in church on January 3 – the first Sunday of 2016 – that: “And this year being a year of elections, you’ll hear many things, many voices.”

“There’ll be many propagandas, there’ll be threatening and intimidation and spirit of assassins unleashed to kill, to steal, to destroy, to threaten lives, organise armed robbery, riots, rebellions, explosions, unrests in certain cities and communities of the country.

"There’ll be all kinds of [scaring], because everybody wants power at the expense of anything, but in the name of the Lord Jesus, let it not be at the expense of anyone’s blood or any innocent child, boy or girl or mother of this land. And it is written in proverbs 16: 33: ‘Men cast the lot, but the Lord determines the outcome.’ Let the outcome of the 2016 elections be determined by the council of God and not by the scheming of men.”

Ghanaians are billed to vote in November for a new President and Parliament.

President John Mahama is running for a second term on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

His arch-contender, Nana Akufo-Addo, three-time flagbearer of the biggest opposition party – NPP – will be slugging it out with his former colleague MP for the second time.

Mr Mahama beat the former Attorney General in the 2012 polls. His predecessor, Prof John Mills also defeated Mr Akufo-Addo in 2008.

The NDC and NPP are clearly the frontrunners, but smaller parties such as the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Progressive People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC) are regrouping.

Political analysts have predicted a tight race between the NPP and NDC, since this will be Mr Akufo-Addo’s third attempt at 72. Apart from former President John Rawlings and Mr Mahama, other presidents of the fourth republic – Mr John Kufuor and Prof Mills – tried multiple times before ascending the presidency. Thus, Mr Akufo-Addo and the NPP have that aspect of history on their side. On the other hand, it is also a historical fact that no sitting president has ever lost an election in Ghana’s fourth republican constitution. Both Mr Rawlings and Mr Kufuor served their two full-terms before leaving office. Death denied Prof Mills that privilege. Mr Mahama and the NDC, therefore, also have that aspect of history on their side.

These and other reasons make the 2016 elections one that neither side would want to lose.