And the winner is …Democracy!

The run up to Ghana's 6th election in the 4th Republic was presaged by the sudden death in office of its sitting president barely 5 months to the polling date.

The relatively young Vice-President, John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was thrust onto

the international stage after a remarkably smooth constitutional transition. He opted to keep the late president's team essentially intact as the polls approached. Many were unsure if he should not have

purged the team he inherited of some of it's more obviously scandal tainted members from the "Woyome" or "Judgment Debt” Affair. It remains to be seen if this was a gutsy, prudent or costly move.

In the run up to the elections, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had already been presenting a scenario which suggested that if the will of the Ghanaian electorate did not favor them, it would have borne out of malfeasance from the incumbent NDC or the largely autonomous Electoral Commission (EC).Somehow, an atmosphere had been created largely by the opposition that

violence would inevitably erupt from this election if they did not win.

At the behest of the Opemsuo Nana Osei Tutu, the Asante Monarch, a peace conference was held about a week before the vote at which a declaration was made to enjoin all party leaders including former presidents, to ensure a peaceful election.

The night before the vote, the president, in a brief address to the nation, reiterated the need to have a peaceful poll. This was viewed with cynicism by some as continued campaigning ahead of the polls.

The election scheduled for Friday, December 7 was a primer in biometric voting for the whole country. The rules of engagement had already been agreed to by an all-party committee prior to Election Day.

There were some disappointing systemic problems right from the start. Voting was scheduled to begin at 7am at all polling stations. There were many reports of late or non-arrival of voting materials, inappropriate allocation of manpower and failure of biometric machines.

A few legitimate voters could not be verified biometrically at their polling stations and so could not cast their ballot. The all party decision of "no verification no vote" led to some Ghanaians being disenfranchised. What was disturbing was the failure of EC officials to be ready and running by 7am. There is no reason why for a regular four yearly event, EC staff cannot arrive as early as 4 or 5am with necessary security, to ensure that voting starts on time across the country. The pervasive work to rule attitude in our civil service was very much present to the detriment of voters, many of whom had arrived anywhere from 1am the night before at many polling stations with their mosquito nets.

Many citizens travelled hundreds of miles to cast their vote at the location of registration if they did not effect a transfer of their vote or as in many cases, a request for transfer was made and was somehow not effected by the EC. Lines were long at many locations, especially in many densely populated areas in the large cities, where clearly there were fewer polling stations than required.

The EC announced that at all polling stations where voting could not be effected, on Friday, Dec 7th because of failing verification machines, voting would be allowed on Saturday Dec 8th. So at

places like Anyaa Soutuom, voting began again the next day.

With roughly 125 of 275 constituencies reporting by Saturday evening

it was clear from early returns that, this was going to be an extremely close race between

the incumbent, John Mahama and the opposition leader Nana Akuffo Addo,

so the integrity of the system had to be beyond reproach. The incumbent continued to hold a slim but constant lead from the returns as they came in. The electorate appears to have become more polarized, with the smaller parties garnering less than 2% of the vote. In many constituencies, the number of spoilt ballots exceeded the votes of some of the smaller parties, an indication that many voters still need help in expressing their wishes accurately.

A number of incumbent NDC ministers have already lost their seats but strangely cries of foul play seem to come from the opposition side in spite of affirmation of the process by the ECOWAS monitoring team. A few unsubstantiated wild claims have already been made by NPP pundits but where NDC heavyweights have lost, so far they seem to have taken it in stride.

The people have shown a great determination to preserve democracy in Ghana but the institutions involved in ensuring stability and continuity still have some catching up to do. The professionalism and

neutrality of the security agencies has been impressive thus far.

It is the hope of most Ghanaians is that, both leaders write both a concession and a victory speech in advance of the release of the final results. The defeated candidate must respect the wishes of the people and accept defeat so the nation can move on with the task of rooting out systemic corruption and advancing development for all Ghanaians.

Prof. T.P. Manus Ulzen
[email protected]
Accra, Dec 8, 2012