The third time was the charm for John Atta Mills, a former member of Ghana's national hockey team who survived two rounds of December voting and a re-vote in one province to top the ruling party's candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, and become president of Ghana. The election of Atta Mills, 64 and currently a law professor, marks the second peaceful transition of power in the country on a continent not known for smooth change. More from Bloomberg:
- "Atta Mills’s victory completes a change in power in the West African nation, the world’s second-biggest cocoa grower and Africa’s No. 2 gold producer, with the NDC having ousted the NPP as the largest party in parliament in a Dec. 7 vote. Ghana may join its neighbors as an oil exporter as early as 2010, when U.K. explorer Tullow Oil Plc expects to begin producing from its Jubilee field that contains an estimated 1.8 billion barrels of crude.
Atta Mills faces challenges including reining in double- digit inflation caused by rising food prices and boosting economic growth in the face of the global economic recession. About 40 percent of Ghana’s population lives in poverty, according to the Web site of the U.S.-based Institute for Food and Development Policy.
'I want to assure all Ghanaians that I will be president to all,' Atta Mills told cheering supporters at his office in Accra after his victory was announced. He pledged to work with opposition parties 'to build a better Ghana for us all.'"
The BBC has a profile on the new president.
(Map: U.S. State Department)
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