11 December 2008
analysis
One side of the argument has been settled decisively already: The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) will from January 7 2009 be referred to as the opposition or minority in Ghana's Legislature. From all indications so far, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been able to sweep more parliamentary seats to earn a fairly comfortable majority, but still up for grabs is the Executive Branch which would be contested for again in two weeks time due to the inconclusive nature of the presidential polls.
None of the eight contestants was able to garner the 50%+1 vote to win outright - what they all termed as "One Touch" victory. The NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo and NDC's John Evans Atta Mills came within a whisker...
So what happened? Why did the NPP fare so poorly? Already a rather scurrilous text message has started doing the rounds blaming outgoing President Kufuor, Presidential Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo and Party Chairman Peter Mac Manu for their party's poor showing.
No doubt, there would be more of such recriminations and the blame would have to end somewhere, but for the moment the NPP has the unenviable task of going to a second round with a handicap: Where to get the votes that the party couldn't get in the first round to win outright.
Any chance Dr. Mahama would chip in? Any chance Dr. Nduom would chip in? The NPP is now faced with the stark reality of either going into full opposition or a power sharing arrangement, should the party pull all the stops available to retain the presidency after the run-off.
It is possible the party can pull the rabbit out of the hat and win the second round. All that is left for presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo to do is to add just a few percentage points to what he got in the first round and the keys to the Golden Jubilee House would be his.
Should that happen, Ghana would be in a unique position where an election (not violence) has produced an Executive and Legislature controlled by two different parties. It would be an exercise in political cohabitation and a test of how the country's democracy has come of age...
Yesterday, Electoral Commission Chairman Dr. Afari Gyan announced the final results as follows:
Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) obtaining 4,159,439 votes with a percentage of 49.13%, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) attaining 4,560,634 votes which represents 47.92%.
The Presidential Candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Dr. Papa Kwasi Nduom polled 113, 494 votes representing 1.34%, Dr. Edward Mahama of the People's National Convention (PNC) also obtained 73,494 votes with a percentage of 0.87% and Emmanuel A. Antwi of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) obtaining 27,889 votes with 0.33%.
Mr. Kwasi Amoafo Yeboah, an Independent Candidate polled 19,342 votes with 0.23%, the Democratic People's Party's (DPP) T.N. Ward Brew attained 8,653 representing 0.10% and Mr. Kwabena Adjei of the Reformed Democrats Party (RDP) got 6,889 votes with 0.08%.
The total valid votes were 8, 465, 834 and the total rejected ballots were 205,438.
Out of the total registered voters of 12,472,758, the total votes cast were 8, 671,272 and the total percentage turn out was 69.52% whilst the total percentage of rejected votes was 2.4%.
Dr. Afari Gyan expressed worry about the manner in which some journalists accused the EC of delaying the results of the elections. He asked: "Why should anyone accuse the EC of delaying the results?" He said such accusations have caused discomfort to the commission.
The EC, he said, is not bound to release an election result within a specific period.
"The 72 hours is not correct. There's no law that stipulates that the commission should release the results within 72 hours. Election results should be carefully checked before being declared.
We should be fair to the candidates because they have invested their time, energy and money in the elections," he said.
Checking of results, he said, would help minimize the incidence of controversies after the commission releases the results.
Dr. Afari Gyan said other journalists also complained that there had been a blackout on the information of the election results. "The EC allowed the media to broadcast even the results at the polling stations.
All certified results were also sent to the Ghana International Press Center for journalists to have the true reflection of the results and give the accurate information to the public," he said. Such allegations, he said, pollute the electoral environment.
The EC commissioner said none of the candidates polled more than 50% of the votes cast as enshrined under Article 63, sub-section 3, 4 and 5 of Ghana's constitution.
He said the run-off would be within 21 days after the voting day which will be on the 28th of December, 2008.
Out of the 230 constituencies, 229 have been certified with the Akwatia constituency in the Eastern Region not certified due to controversies that arose in that electoral area.
The run-off however would be between Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP and Prof. Atta-Mills of the NDC.
A representative from the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Mr. Asante commended the media for exhibiting high sense of maturity and professionalism in the elections.
"We had difficulties before the elections but we've been able to control them. Thanks to the media and the security services in the country," he said.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Accra Mail. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
If this is true, it is a strategy in the right direction. The original campaign team was overbloated and full of deadweight(s). This lean and mean team has the potential to be more effective.
Well done Ghana for allowing citizens to freely choose the leaders. I think Africa will learn a lot from the Ghanaian case. Africa should learn that the advent of All Inclusive Gorvenments in some African countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe is a step towards autocracy; it's not democracy. Incumbents that lose elections should step down and not enter into some shaddy deals with the victors like Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Kibbaki of Kenya did. I think African democracies like Ghana, Senegal, Liberia and Siera Leone should establish a league of democracies in Africa where only African countries that completely adhere to democratic standards of holding elections are allowed to be members. I think the AU is quite useless as it as an all embracing organisation and the majority dictatorships in the AU are not willing to give democracy a chance.
Active Discussions: Ghana Election a Win for Democracy