Eleven (11) men and one (1) woman will contest Ghana’s 2024 presidential election, which is just 3 days away.

Two of the twelve contenders have been tipped as favourites in the race to find the replacement for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is bowing out after serving two terms. They are John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is the flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This article looks at the records that would be broken in the event that Mahama, the 4th President of the 4th Republic of Ghana, is elected again as President of Ghana on December 7, 2024.

The former President became the longest-serving flagbearer and presidential candidate of the NDC after he won the party’s May 13, 2023, presidential primaries.

This puts the former President in the bracket of two Ghanaians who have contested in 4 elections to become the President of the Republic. Mahama shares this record with the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

However, Dr. Edward Mahama holds the record of the Ghanaian who has contested the most in presidential elections, with five presidential runs.



John Dramani Mahama would, however, be setting new records for presidential officeholders if he wins the December 7, 2024, presidential elections.

Here are some of the new records that will be set if Mahama becomes President again:

Longest-serving democratically elected president:

Currently, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, as well as the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, hold the joint record of the longest-serving democratically elected presidents. They have all been in the Office of the President of Ghana for eight years.

The late Jerry John Rawlings is, however, the longest-serving head of state of Ghana, having served as a military ruler for 11 years and 117 days and as a democratically elected president for 8 years (19 years and 117 days in total).



The record for the longest-serving democratically elected President will go to John Dramani Mahama if he wins the 2024 elections.

Mahama has already been President for 4 years and 167 days, and if he becomes President for another 4 years, he would have held the office of the President for 8 years and 167 days.



The only democratically elected President who has held the Sword of the State three times:

So far, four of the democratically elected presidents of Ghana in the 4th Republic – Rawlings, Kufuor, Mahama, and Akufo-Addo – have been sworn into office and held the Sword of State two times.

The late Prof. Atta Mills and the other elected leaders of Ghana in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Republics only held the state sword once.

Mahama, having held the state sword twice, the first time when he became President on July 24, 2012, after the demise of Prof. Atta Mills, and the second time on January 7, 2013, when he won the 2012 election, would hold it again if he is sworn into office on January 7, 2025.

There are arguments that Rawlings might have held the Sword of state three times – once as a military leader and two times as an elected president – but Mahama will hold the record if he wins the 2024 presidential elections.

The first president to lose an election and be elected again:

Aside from Mahama and Prof. Atta Mills, who died some months before the end of their 1st terms, all the presidents of the 4th Republic of Ghana served for two consecutive terms.

The 1992 Constitution of Ghana allows presidents to serve for two terms, with one term of office made up of four years. The 1st President of the 4th Republic, JJ Rawlings, served two consecutive terms, as did the 2nd President of the 4th Republic, Kufuor, and the 5th President of the 4th Republic, Akufo-Addo.

Mahama did not win his bid for a second term in 2016. He again lost the presidential election in 2020.

If he wins the 2024 presidential election, he will be the first Ghanaian President to lose an election and be elected again.

Other records that would be broken:

Former President Mahama’s wife, the former First Lady Lordina Mahama, would be the longest-serving first lady in the democratic dispensation of Ghana.

Mahama would also set new records as Ghana’s representative at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union’s Assembly of Heads of State and Government, and the United Nations General Assembly. He will be the President who has represented Ghana the most at these organisations.

In the event that the former President does not win the 2024 election, some records would also be set, including:

The only former President to have lost his re-election bid three times:

All the former presidents of Ghana’s 4th Republic who were alive upon the completion of their first term won their re-election bids.

JJ Rawlings won his re-election bid after his 1st term, Kufuor did the same, and so did Akufo-Addo.

Mahama, on the other hand, lost not only his first re-election bid but his second. Losing the 2024 election would be Mahama’s 3rd failed re-election bid.

The only one-term president of Ghana’s 4th Republic:

Also, if Mahama loses the 2024 election, he will continue to be the only living one-term President of the 4th Republic.

As pointed out earlier, all the former presidents of Ghana’s 4th Republic who were alive upon the completion of their first term served for two terms apart from Mahama.

BAI/EK

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