ELECTIONS 2012-GHANA

8.20am GMT, Friday, 7^th December, 2012, I voted at my registered polling station at Madina, Accra. After casting my vote, I went back home and followed proceedings on radio, TV, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
I returned to the polling station at 5pm to witness the counting of the votes, but some people were still voting. I went back home. I returned later, only to realize, they had finished counting one voting centre already, three more left to be counted as they were four voting centres at this polling station. The centre I voted was then sorting the ballot papers by parties. I waited and observed my own vote plus those of others, who voted there counted. Two more left. There was sorting going on at one centre, but at the last centre, voters were asked to come the following day to vote. The real challenge there was whether; the votes should be counted and recorded or taken uncounted to the Police Station? The people, who were around disagreed with the security to take the ballot boxes away without counting them, but eventually, there was security reinforcement and the security bullied their way and took the ballot papers to the Police Station for safe-keeping for voting to continue the following day at the centre.

NO VERIFICATION, NO VOTE AND CI 75

Every voter was supposed to be a biometric-voter by being registered by the biometric machine and by the biometric voter registration process. Any voter, who had a voter ID card must have gone through the biometric process and had his or her fingers recognized and identified before the ID card was issued to that person and was assumed that person was supposed to vote on voting day without any problems. During Election 2012, there many reports that some legally registered voters could not vote because the verification machine couldn’t recognize their fingers. Meanwhile it was the same machine that recognized their fingers during the registration time and they were legally registered.
A Constitutional Instrument (CI) 75 was passed by parliament to replace some old election and registration laws and “Section 30 (2) explicitly states, that voters shall go through a biometric verification process to cast their votes”
I don’t know if those who promulgated this law had an exception as they are always exceptions in most laws to make room for the problems that were encountered on voting days, on the 7^th and 8^th of December 2012.
I don’t understand why the very machine that recognized voters’ fingers during registration and they were given voter IDs could no longer recognized their very same fingers and that could be a price; they, the voters or their parties should suffer for that.  No verification, no vote was not a referendum for all legal Ghanaian voters to accept or reject it. Only few people decided for the remaining millions of Ghanaians and indeed these few people had it wrong when the reality appeared on voting day this year. Those few people closed their eyes or refused to see the possibility of the impossible and decided wrongly for many people and denied those people their legal rights. There should be a criteria for exceptions under no verification, no vote.
No verification, no vote can only work properly if there is a referendum on it. How can just an unimaginable fraction of the population decide for the rest of Ghanaians that way?
If no exception criteria would be laid down for this no verification, no vote thing, then there should be referendum on it for all legal voters to decide on it.

BREAKDOWN OF VERIFICATION MACHINES

At my own polling station, at one of the voting centres, the verification machine broke down and voting had to continue the next day.
All over Ghana, especially northern Ghana voting continued the following day because of the breakdown of the verification machines. We were later told that the batteries of those machines needed to be changed within a specified number of hours among reasons. Many of the contracted employees of the Electoral Commission did not know this, and voters were subjected to the scorching sun, long queues only to be disappointed and told they had to come the following day.

 FUNNY THINGS STARTED HAPPENING

In many other places, the verification machines were not recognizing voters’ fingers. People started getting creative and trying to outwit the machine, so they could vote.  It was reported on radio and TV that many washed their hands with soft drinks, like coca-cola. Others even used petrol to clean their hands and I also heard that somewhere in the north, some people had to wash their hands and dry them with fire from charcoal pots, before retrying if the verification machine could pick their fingers for them to vote. These on the surface sound funny, but in actual sense, they are very serious for the politicians to ponder. Ordinary people, men and women, young and adult had to do all these things, so they could vote for their preferred candidate and I believe the Ghanaian politician, hencefort, would never, never, never take the Ghanaian electorate for granted. Ghanaians need jobs, potable clean water, good road network, electricity 24/7, peace & security to sleep peacefully at night, food security, etc.
The Ghanaian politician should be aware of these and never take the Ghanaian electorate for granted. The Ghanaian electorate deserve better than has been given back by our politicians since 1992.  Ghanaian electorate has patience, but not forever, great lessons will be taught great politicians if they the politicians continue to think of only themselves and their immediate families. A time will come when they and their immediate families will not have peace and security to enjoy their collected and accumulated wealth or riches.
It is my earnest hope, the president-elect will use the four-year term given to him to create jobs, development, peace and stability. This time around, Mr. President-Elect and President of the Republic of Ghana, we, Ghanaians want real action job creation, water and electricity supply 24/7, peace and stability. The patience of the Ghanaian electorate is waning and should not be toyed with. Expectations are going higher and higher, election after election.

RUMOURS ALL OVER

Between 7pm to 8pm as I was there witnessing counting of votes at my polling station, there were rumours all over that Hon. Muntaka, the MP for Asawase in Kumasi had lost his seat, that Mr. Asamoah Boateng (aka Asa-B) had regained the Mfantseman West seat, that Hon. E .T. Mensah had also lost the Ningo Prampram seat and many others. I made calls to friends at some of the constituencies only to be told those constituencies indeed had not even finished counting, so for any contestant to be declared a winner was a lie. I even told one lady, who was jubilating to take it easy, as the rumours were not true, because I had crossed checked from credible sources and could tell her those places had not finished counting their votes.
As someone, who likes radio more than TV I followed the electioneering proceedings on a number of radio stations, but mainly on JOY FM, the radio station I always listen to on normal days.

THE JINAPOR BROTHERS

John Jinapor, a member of the NDC and also the spokesperson of President, John Mahama and his brother Samuel Abu Jinapor, a member of the NPP and a member of Nana Akuffo Addo’s campaign team met on JOY FM on Saturday evening, the second day of the election. The rumours continued on JOY FM and it was great listening to these two brothers, who belong to different political parties express their feelings, hopes, happiness and unhappiness, affection for each other, understanding for each, respect for each and I loved the way they related to each other on radio. I hope they would always do that any where they meet, whether at home, radio stations, political grounds. I also pray that they should create another Andani-Abudu in Gonjaland years after they had all left this beautiful, well-crafted planet. They should continue to exhibit their understanding for each other and never allow politics to divide them at home. I enjoyed listening to them.

 PRESS CONFERENCES AND PRESS RELEASES

Anxious and itchy, NDC and NPP started having short press conferences. NDC held its first, then NPP followed with three of them lead by Agyarko, the campaign manager for Nana Akuffo Addo,    Kwabena Agyapong and the NPP declaration by John Owusu Afriyie, the NPP General Secretary, when he declared that NPP had won the election with 51% plus. I listened to these conferences and couldn’t imagine how uneasy it was for these politicians. They were so irritating and disturbing that they never realized it. Ghanaians were waiting for the recognized authoritative body, the Electoral Commission to declare the results for them to be believe who really won, yet these two parties kept disturbing our ears with press conferences.
A number of press releases from the Electoral Commission and other bodies were released in the heat of the election to correct, clarify, confirm or deny a boiling issue, one of them being the STL issue, where the     Electoral Commission had to issue a press release to say that it had some business to do with STL but not the transmission of electoral results. The Election Commission said STL won the contract to give it the technical support services as far as the biometric voter registration was concerned. The EC stressed STL had nothing to for the EC as far as transmission of electoral results was concerned.
Interestingly, one never heard any press conference by CPP, PNC, GCPP, PPP and JOY, the independent candidate. Didn’t they have anything to tell us? Their composure and calmness left questions to be asked. Were they too shocked to be able to speak?  Maybe, they did not want to heighten tensions.

NATIONAL PEACE COUNCIL

The National Peace Council, chaired by Most Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante of the Methodist Church and his team did a marvelous job. They had not been sleeping days before the election and couldn’t have slept on the Election Day. NPP and John Owusu Afriyie, the General Secretary of the NPP made the National Peace Council not sleep on the election. Around 1am the National Peace Council had to hold a press conference to condemn and express their displeasure of the NPP General Secretary’s conference, which took place around 9 in the evening, declaring the results in their favour when many constituencies’ results had not been counted. Since 1992, when I did not even have a vote, I have followed election proceedings carefully and I don’t sleep on the night of elections. I therefore followed every bit of the National Peace Council Conference held on the Saturday night. Why Ghanaian politicians should let these elderly, honourable men and women of society hold conferences at 1am?  Did the Ghanaian politician have their plight, concern, interest at heart, or the Ghanaian politician was just interesting in his own self-centered benefits? Next time, the Ghanaian politician refuses to think about Ghanaians first, the Ghanaian politician should be voted out to learn greater lessons.

PEACE MESSAGES

Peace messages such as “Peace but not pieces”, “Votes but not Violence”, “Ballots but not Bullets” were seen on television screens and they caught the attention of Ghanaians, though Ghanaians are naturally peace-loving people. Those, who invented these catchy messages, deserve commendation

DECLARATION OF RESULTS

On Sunday, around 10pm the Electoral Commission headed by the indomitable, professional, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan came out to declare the winner after holding a meeting among the political parties and the National Peace Council. As usual, Dr. Afari Gyan gave a short speech and declared His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama as the winner of the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections held in every part in Ghana as having won with 50.70% of the total votes cast from 275 constituencies.

 JUBILATIONS OVER WIN

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters all over Ghana came out in their numbers to jubilate. They over jubilated to the extent that some people even got injured and it was reported some died.  TV3, a local television network broadcasted live a number of places in Ghana, Bole, President, John Mahama’s hometown, Volta Region, Ashanti Region, especially Asawase ( ah, why not Asanti but Ashanti, where does the H come from, hmm those colonial masters) and other regions. In Accra, where I live, the real celebration was at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle where as at 00.00 the Vice President, His Excellency; Kwesi Bekoe Amissah Arthur was there with his wife. The President, John Mahama’s campaign Coordinator, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah was also there and all danced to NDC campaign songs and chanted the “Edey Be Keke” slogan adopted by NDC and twisted their mouths to the left and right.

INTOLERANCE & HOOLIGANISM FOLLOWED

Some young people suspected to belong to the aggrieved NPP started attacking any body they see in NDC T-Shirt, any car they see with NDC sticker. They vandalized some cars, injured some people and even attacked some journalists from some media houses. Their leaders had to intervene to stop the barbaric behavior. They had forgotten the peace messages that “Peace, but not Pieces, Votes, but not Violence”. You don’t use violence to get your case heard.  Some NDC supporters also came out to counter them at Accra Central and the security services had to intervene to cool tempers.
Days later, the security service had to meet the National Chairpersons of the NDC and NPP to ask their followers to behave civilly else the rigours of the laws of the land would be applied on them. The leaders asked their followers to calm down and they have heeded to their advice.

 PEACE & SECURITY AT ELECTION 2012

I have witnessed elections in Ghana since 1992 though I was young in 1992 and 1996 and I still can remember a number of instances. Election was 2012 was one of the most peaceful nationwide as reports came from various parts of the country.
The security agencies did an excellent job and up-to-now Iam marveled at how they did it. If they could do it during the elections, why don’t they do it always? The Ghanaian security services are not really known to be friendly and professional as we saw them in this election. I had seen instances, where the little provocation ended one in the brutality of the Police, but at Election 2012 the Police, etc  were enduring and had patience and exhibited real professionalism.
Commendations to all the Ghanaian security agencies, especially their national, regional, divisional and unit heads. Congratulations on your excellent performance. We need more this every day not just election days.

 SLOGANS AND SYMBOLISM AND YEARS TO COME

Election after election, a whole world of creativity crops up sometimes willy-nilly. Since the year 2000, elections in Ghana have been embellished and garnished with symbolism and  captivating slogans that, no matter where one belongs, one  gets attracted  and begin to chant one’s affiliated party’s slogan and make the gestures of one’s political or even dance to the tune of the opponent’s music. It is been so lively that many political supporters and fans (especially the youth) get caught up in them that they end up doing the real campaign for their respective presidential candidates. In the year 2000, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) used the symbolic “Aseho” meaning, down-there or the bottom or last slot and pointing the thumb to the bottom. It was so catchy, lively and infectious. In the year 2008, almost all the political parties had their slogans and symbolism with the NPP again dancing and pointing all ten fingers forward and saying they were moving forward for continuity, while the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) did the time-for-change-over sign with their fingers.
It was another lovely and lively sight in 2012, as the current two big Political parties, the NDC and NPP again came out with innovative and creative songs, slogans, signs campaigning for their parties.  In this year’s election, the NDC had their slogan caught so much with their party supporters and one thing is that many years to come, generations will be asking “what was the meaning of the twisting of the mouths in 2012 elections by the NDC supporters and or fans”.
There were campaign adverts on TV and on radio by all political parties and again these two big parties dominated.  These campaign adverts were so creativity, every Ghanaian had their choice depending on which political party one empathized with.   I remember listening to JOY FM on its evening programme hosted by Bola Ray. He asked listeners to phone in and tell him which advert was their best and in all the NDC had the highest calls in its favour and one advert that was done by some schoolchildren for the NDC topped the list. I had two of them that were my favourites all from NDC.
Years to come generations, who will have the privilege to watch elections in Ghana since the year 2000 would be marveled with the creativity and innovation, symbolism and slogans that this generation enacted. Kudos to the original intellectual property owners. Ghana needs more of these.

 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

The Institute of Economic Affairs, (IEA) a Ghanaian non-governmental organization engaged in governance activities and other important national issues have been organizing political debates for presidential candidates of political parties that have members of parliaments.
In election 2012, there were four political parties, the NDC, NPP, PNC and CPP that were represented in parliament and so their presidential candidates took part in the two presidential debates that took place in Tamale and in Accra. This year’s debates were not being staged without keenness, aggressiveness lashed with humour mainly from the PNC candidate Hassan Ayariga and causing laughter among the audience. This year’s was the first time ever, a sitting presidential participated in the debate since its inception. The PNC candidate though did not give the best of answers to questions asked, give creative answers but was on the spotlight for his humour and “not-intentional and intentional coughs” in the Accra debate. Though, the two debates made Hassan Ayariga very popular because of his overall behaviour, composure and his style of answering the questions posed to him, the final election results did not really reflect his seeming popularity, yet he will always be remembered when its time for the presidential debates.
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) also had its version of the presidential debate for the other presidential candidates that did not have representation in parliament and they were coincidentally four presidential candidates too.
The IEA and the GBC need commendation and support to continue to be able to pursue what they are good at doing.

SOCIAL NETWORKS

The advent of social networks was a great news and joy to sharers of information. Election 2012 was campaigned on all platforms including an intensive use of the social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc and others. All political parties and or their presidential candidates had their messages updated frequently. The political parties were able to stay connected to the youth, that are now addicted to these social networks. I used mainly Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and was able to follow election 2012 greatly through the power of the internet.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

The international media was greatly represented here in Ghana and they had a peaceful coverage of Election 2012.

OBSERVER MISSIONS

Independent observer missions both local and international were live and vibrant in election 2012. There was the local observer group, called Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), the ECOWAS observer mission headed in this election by former Nigerian President General Olusegun Obasanjo, the UN observer mission were all here independently to observe the elections and they all generally expressed satisfaction with Election 2012.

LACK OF EDUCATION

In Election 2012, I got to know many Ghanaians lack education of many national issues and really need education on basic national issues. The National Commission for Civic Education and other assigned national bodies have a lot of work to do and I believe they are aware of the gravity of ignorance out there among many. Many people are so gullible that anything could be pushed down their throats, because of ignorance. They ask certain naïve questions and you don’t get it. They say certain incredible things and you don’t know where they learnt them or heard them from. The Ghanaian populace needs education on many basic national issues.

INTOLERANCE AND INSULTS

I believe all political parties need votes from all Ghanaians or greater number of votes from Ghanaians than their opponents would get to be able to win the national elections. Election after election some political party supporters “help” their parties lose the national elections by their utterances and some hurled insults at people belonging other political parties. I believe it is the political parties involved that are to be blamed since they come out angrily to condemn such acts. Even I don’t’ hear civil society condemn this and it’s going on and happening in Ghana election after election. Certain political parties lose votes from certain regions and assume it is normal without addressing the problems and trying to get the votes in the next elections. Until political parties ask their root supporters to stop the use of foul, barbaric, uncivilized language, they would continue to lose votes in certain regions they need votes to win the national elections. Many Ghanaians vote for recognition of their dignity not only for gain of economic and political power. Do Ghanaian political parties have functional research machinery?   Political parties should begin to ask questions why certain groups of people identify themselves with a political party but not theirs and begin to find the answers. You or your supporter cannot insult me or my brother or sister or colleague human and come to me asking me for my vote. When we begin to treat political parties that way, they would learn to be humble and submissive. I strongly believe in No respect, No vote (NRNV) because with me, you cannot buy my vote.

EXPECTATIONS

In Election 2012 Ghanaians came out massively to vote for their respective parties. No political party should deceive itself thinking Ghanaians just like to vote. NDC won the national elections as declared by the Electoral Commission and I believe the President and his team know that the expectations of Ghanaians from the Mahama Administration are really are massive and gargantuan.
We need jobs, potable water, strict regulations,(to protect industry and commerce, should favour local ones) safety and security, bumper harvests, constant power supply,  medical tourism, increase in internet usage by supplying cables like electricity to all communities for people to connect to their homes, use and pay for it or even prepay for it, make basic education free and progressively make SHS free too, make affordable housing affordable not affluent housing, help reduce road accidents in Ghana ( dear to my heart), help educate many Ghanaians on importance of peace to end useless conflicts that retard development, revive the pride and dignity of the Ghanaian living everywhere and many, many more.
I am just an ordinary young Ghanaian trying to contribute my bit.
Long Live the Ghanaian. Long live Ghana.
© 2012, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo
Email: gayeebo@gmail.com
Blog: http://g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com