African Elections Project (Accra)
30 December 2008
Thousands of NDC supporters spent the night at the offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) headquarters in Accra. The crowd has made their intentions clear - that they are going to lay siege at the commission office until the final results are released.
In order to maintain law and order at the EC's office, a large group of army and police officers have condoned off the offices of the Electoral Commission and they have fired tear gas at certain times in the night to control the crowds. The situation is very fluid but calm. In a related development the NDC's presidential candidate Atta Mills has urged his supporters to remain calm and wait for the Electoral Commission to declare the final results although he has indicated that his party has won the elections.
Meanwhile news reports reaching African Elections Project indicates that the National Democratic Congress is alleging that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is trying to smuggle in doctored presidential elections results to the presidential elections results collation centre, called the "strong room," located at the head office of the EC.
This led to high-pitched exchanges being traded between officials of the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress. It took the personal intervention of the Electoral Commission chair to prevent a near open fight between the two parties.
A meeting is scheduled between the Electoral Commission and the two parties to resolve this allegation and it is expected that after this meeting, the Electoral Commissioner will go ahead to declare the winner of the presidential run off.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 African Elections Project. 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.
