EC CREATES TENSION

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, December 09, 2016

There is simmering tension in the country as the Electoral Commission (EC) continues to hold on to the results of last Wednesday’s keenly-contested presidential election.

The EC says it’s delaying because its attention had been drawn to what it called “several possible instances of over-voting” which occurred during the crucial election.

The EC said it would conduct thorough verification process before the final declaration.

As the Charlotte Osei-led commission continues to keep the whole nation in suspense, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said its parallel tally of 27,577 out of 28,992 (representing 94.23%) of the polling stations results had put its candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in a commanding lead of 53.79% over President John Mahama’s 44.42%.

Verification Process

The EC, through its Communications Director Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, had said the commission is committed to releasing the results within the 72-hour mandatory timeline but insisted the verification process would have to be completed.

Unprecedented Act

However, the NPP held a news conference in Accra yesterday describing the EC’s delay as unprecedented and called on the commission to release the results without any further delay.

The party’s National Youth Organiser, Sammy Awuku, who addressed a news conference in a highly charged atmosphere at the party’s headquarters at Asylum Down, Accra yesterday, said, “In the growth of our democratic dispensation, this has been the first time in 16 years that election results have unduly delayed in this manner.”

Rising Suspicion

“It raises suspicion; it creates unnecessary tension across the country; it creates unnecessary discomfort among the youth of Ghana in which we are trying to even help restrain them. This suspicion gives people the cause to suggest that the commission may be attempting to overturn the clearly expressed mandate of the majority of the Ghanaian people and the youth of Ghana through the ballot box.

“This is unfortunate and we are calling on the Electoral Commission to clear all doubts by simply getting on with it. We know what they have received through their fax machines and it corresponds with what the NPP has received. What they gave to us at the polling station is what was also faxed to them so nobody can turn 6 into 9 and can turn our dancing into mourning again,” Sammy Awuku charged.

Parallel Tally

He said their parallel tally was translating into some 5,441,642 votes for Nana Akufo-Addo and 4,497,477 for President Mahama, which is a clear difference of 944,165 saying, “This is what we call clear non-rigable margin, no numerical gymnastics that will be employed by a South African IT expert or Israeli IT expert can undo the sovereign mandate that the Ghanaian people want to entrust to the care of the NPP.”

According to Mr. Awuku, “With only 1,690 pink sheets yet to be recorded from our centre, mostly from marginal polling stations, that’s even if all the votes there are awarded to the incumbent NDC candidate, the provisional result will not be overturned.

“We hasten to stress that any attempt to delay the inevitable will needlessly disturb what has been by and large a peaceful and democratic exercise of the will of the people.”

Landslide Victory

The NPP is chalking unprecedented success in the history of Ghana’s election and has been projected to win about 170 out of 275 seats in parliament.

 “Per our provisional results, it is absolutely clear that the NPP has won a landslide victory, this is apparent from the parliamentary results so far announced. We have at least gained an additional new seats across the country: Greater Accra: 20 seats, gained 6; Western Region: 18, gained 10; Central Region: 18, gained 11; Eastern Region: 28, gained 1; Ashanti Region: 44, gained 1; BA: 20, gained 7; Northern Region: 14, gained 4; Upper East Region: 3 seats, gained 2; Upper West Region: 5 seats, 5 gained,” Mr Awuku stressed.

EC’s Tactics

EC’s suggestion to review all results from the collation centres and verify them against the physical pink sheets from the polling stations appears to be creating tension.

It had said, “The verification process is now in several stages before results will be certified,” and mentioned some of them as receipt of manual faxes from the collation centres and comparison of faxed summary results with the Electronic Results Transfer data.

Solidarity Messages

Already, all the contestants, apart from the NDC’s President Mahama, have taken turns to congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo as president-elect.

The NPP candidate took to social media platform -Twitter – to acknowledge receipt of the congratulatory messages, saying, “I've received words of congratulation from Mr Greenstreet, Mrs Rawlings, Dr Nduom, Dr Mahama & Mr Yeboah. I thank them. May God bless Ghana.”