Round 2: December 28

By Drew Hinshaw & Edmund Mingle
Thursday, 11 December 2008

The Electoral Commission, at its headquarters in Accra, yesterday afternoon publicly confirmed what the provisional results had suggested for days, when it unfurled its certified count, guaranteeing that the marathon race for Ghana’s president will march onwards into a run-off election.
Other than two top-winning parties, not one got two percent, yet the margin between the NPP and the NDC came in so slim that, constitutionally, the EC is mandated to organize a second, definitive run-off election.
Nana Akufo Addo of the New Patriotic Party obtained 49.13% (4,159,439 votes), while Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress, had 47.92% (4,056,634 votes).
That election will take place on Sunday, December 28, and will feature only the incumbent NPP’s candidate and that of the principal opposition, the NDC.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, announced the results before a jam-packed conference room, filled to standing room only with international and domestic observers, journalists, foreign correspondents, ambassadors, high commissioners, and communication directors from most of the major parties.
Throughout the procedure, he appeared visibly fatigued, as testimony to what he said had been an exhausting vote tabulation process.
At one point, he mistakenly credited the NDC with winning a mere 4,056 votes, before a shocked and gasping audience caused him to realize his mistake.
“You can all see that I’m tired,” he said, to a cheerful retort of laughter.
“It is clear that none of the candidates has won the election, and therefore there will be a run-off,” Dr Afari-Gyan announced.
The Akwatia constituency ballot is yet to be declared because the EC has to establish why some ballots in the constituency were tampered with.
Even though Dr. Afari-Gyan did not explain whether those ballots could make any difference if added to the total, it is believed that they would not have any significance on the results that have been declared.
The decision to re-run the election is clothed in the Constitution under Article 63, sub-sections 3,4, and 5. According to 3, “A person shall not be elected as President of Ghana unless through a presidential election and the number of votes cast in his favour is more than 50 per cent of the total number of valid votes cast at the election.”
He said the results declared were in the context of the constitutional provision which also states that the re-run should be held 21 days after the first election.
This is the second time in the Fourth Republic and the third time in the history of the country that Ghanaians will be going to the polls to elect the next president through a run off.
The first run-off in the history of the country took place on July 9, 1979 between Dr Hilla Limann of the Peoples National Party (PNP) and Victor Owusu of the Popular Front Party (PFP).
The earlier election that paved way for the re-run was also contested by William Ofori-Atta for the United National Convention (UNC), Dr John Bilson of the Third Force Party (TFP), Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), and Col. Frank Bernarko of the Action Congress Party (ACP).
In 2000, the current President, John Agyekum Kufour, won the election for the first time through a run-off when the first poll failed to produce a clear winner.
In the said election, then candidate Kufour polled 3,104,393 votes, representing 48.4% of total valid votes cast, as against the 2,871,051 won by then Vice President and presidential candidate of the National democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. John E.A. Mills.
The other contestants in the first round election were Daniel Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP); Prof. George Hagan of the Convention People’s Party (CPP); Dr Edward N. Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC); Dr Charles Wereko Brobby of the United Ghana Movement (UGM) and Goozie Tanoh of the National Reform Party (nNRP).
Ironically, the date for the 2000 run-off (December 28) is the same date that the Electoral Commission has chosen for this year’s run-off.
Dr. Afari-Gyan commended the media “for generally doing a good work” in disseminating election information to the citizenry, but chastised them over two issues that “caused discomfort” to the commission.
He said the media generally did well in sending the results to the electorate in their homes and offices, but others did more harm than good in accusing the EC of delaying in announcing the results of the presidential poll.
He said the demand for the EC to declare the result within 72 hours was unrealistic because the Commission was not bound by any law to do so.
“If any of you can find in any law that compels us to declare the results in 72 hours, bring it to us,” he challenged their critics.
He explained that the Commission only promised to do its best to declare the result within 72 hours, in answer to persistent enquiries from the media as to when the EC was likely to declare the results.
“That promise should not be taken that we are bound to declare the results in 72 hours,” he said.
The other issue that caused discomfort, he said, was allegations that the EC had placed a “black-out” on the parliamentary results.
He denied the allegation and said the release of some of the results had to be delayed to ensure that the results were cross-checked before certification