Nosike Ogbuenyi And Olawale Olaleye
7 December 2008
Accra — Nigeria's sister West African country, Ghana votes today to elect its fifth president. Even though eight presidential candidates are contesting the election, the race is widely seen as a straight battle between former Foreign Minister, Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former Vice-President under ex-President John Jerry Rawlings, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The latter unsuccessfully ran as the NDC presidential candidate in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
Today's presidential poll holds together with the national legislative election just like the case in Nigeria in which the presidential and the National Assembly elections hold jointly. The only difference is that the Ghanaian parliament is unicameral.
The presidential contest is perceived as race between the out-going President John Kufuor, the leader of the NPP and former President Rawlings who handed over power to Kufour in 2000. Kufuor, then the opposition candidate had defied all odds to trounce Rawlings' deputy, Atta-Mills.
Some pundits have predicted a tight presidential race between Akufo-Addo and Atta-Mills and the possibility of a run-off in which the smaller parties would decide the eventual winner. One of the other presidential candidates, Mr. Kwesi Amoafo Yeboah told THISDAY yesterday that the two bigger parties, NPP and NDC are always on each others throat thereby making the contest to look explosive and tension-soaked. "As they fight among themselves, the problems of the people and the country remain We are all praying for some tolerance. It is dangerous where we are now but we are still praying and hoping."
Yeboah, who is the only independent candidate in the race revealed that the presidential candidates have since constituted among themselves what they called Inter-party Advisory Committee under which they have resolved to pursue peace and tolerance before and after the elections.
The Chairman of Electoral Commission of Ghana (ECG), the body charged with conducting the elections, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said yesterday in Accra that the commission was fully ready for the task. He said he would be making further comments later today after the voting.
Ghana with a population of about 22 million, is divided into 10 regions -Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta and Western. The regions are subdivided into a total of 138 districts.
The founder of modern Ghana , Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown through a military coup in 1966. A flurry of coups and counter coups followed and ended with the ascension to power of Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in 1981. These changes resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981 and the banning of political parties. A new constitution, restoring multi-party politics, was promulgated in 1992, and Rawlings was elected as president in the free and fair elections of that year. He again won the elections in 1996 to serve his second and final term. Like in Nigeria , the constitution forbids an incumbent from running for a third term. the incumbent president, is now rounding up his second term, which ends this month.
Meanwhile the Nigerian Government has donated five Hilux pick-up vehicles to Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) as part of her contribution to a hitch-free voting exercise.
Presenting the vehicles, Nigeria's High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who was received by Mr. David Kanga, Deputy Chairman of EC, said Ghana would be making a democratic statement if it conducts the voting exercise successfully. "We identify with Ghana during this election. Ghana has become a stable democracy and election observers might not have to come in future elections," he said. Responding, Kanga who expressed the commission's gratitude for the gesture however said Ghana has learnt a lot from Nigeria.
He mentioned specifically, the biometric system that was used in Nigeria and said had Ghana followed suit, the problems associated with the registration exercise would have been eliminated. Kanga therefore said when eventually Ghana adopts the system, "we would draw from the Nigerian experience".
Ghana has a political history of conducting her presidential elections on December 7 of every election year.
The election process is billed to commence at 7am, Ghanaian time. Ghana is an hour behind Nigeria in the global time zone. The electoral process, according to chairman of the electoral commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said there is an identifiable transparent system that would make rigging impossible.
For instance, Afari-Gyan said at each polling station, there would be five forms. One for statement of the polls, the second for declaration of results, the third for handing over certificates which will be two and the last would be for the arrest and search of suspects.
He also said that there would be one presiding officer at each polling station with four polling officers to assist him. At the constituency level, there will be one returning officer with two deputies who will be responsible for the conduct and supervision of the elections under the direction of the District Electoral Officer and the EC.
The electoral commission however said it has deployed all the materials for today's election to their points of need. Over 22,000 polling stations are involved in the election.
As at yesterday, the commission said what was left for it to do in the pre-election process, was the airlifting of logistics to three areas in the country. It named the areas as the Fumbusi, which falls within Yagaba/Kuore constituency, the Salaga constituency and Donkorkrom which encompasses the Afram plains areas. The military, he said, have been detailed to lift the materials to the areas today shortly before the commencement of the voting process.
Meanwhile, the Police in Ghana have read riot act to all prospective trouble makers in today's exercise, saying the police would not hesitate to shoot whoever is found illegally in possession of ballot boxes. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ashanti Command, Mr. Kwasi Ayensu said the police would view such act as robbery and would visit whoever is culpable with similar punishment as that stipulated for a robber.
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