PEACE
MESSAGE TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY
BY; KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM
DATE:
2ND DECEMBER 2012
As the day of the voting approaches, I want to
add my little voice to the loud and huge voices who collectively have been
drumming the common peace beat for a while now. My brothers and sisters,
friends, family and everyone eligible to exercise his/her franchise, please let
us endeavor to do what is required of us, let us go to our various polling centers
and cast our votes without any problems. Let us avoid those who might for one
reason or another deliberately spark up exchanges while we are in queues waiting
our turn. Let us not get ourselves involved in any altercations whatsoever with
the security personnel on duty. Let us endeavor to return home immediately we
are through with the process, if we have no other business to do at these
polling centers.
Avoid
being provoked by what others would be saying and utterances they would be
making while in the queues. We need peace, and it all depends on us all, I
inclusive.
As youths,
let us not allow ourselves to be used as tools for destruction. Let us hold
high our personalities and images, so that no politician walks to us and tell
us to do the unthinkable.
My name is
Kingsley Komla Adom, I am for peace and I pledge to do what is expected of me
on December 7.I promise not to do anything in any form or shape to mar the
electoral process. Hope you all do same. Let us preserve the peace we are
enjoying in our country momentarily……………Happy December 7 to us all in
advance……….…LONG LIVE GHANA……….
BEFORE
7TH DECEMBER [FEW DAYS TO THE D-DAY, ELECTION DAY]
STORY BY: KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM
DATE:
6TH DECEMBER 2012
Few days to the December 7 polls, the entire country
was charged, literally. All the political parties, at least the major ones,
were rounding up and wrapping up their campaigns and preparations. Everybody
was seriously prepared to vote on the D-day.
On 5th
December, the two leading political parties held their respective final rallies
which they called [RALLY DE GRANDE
FINALE].The New Patriotic Party (NPP)
leadership held their rally at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park and the
National Democratic Congress (NDC)
held their own rally at the Accra International Trade Fair Centre. They needed
to apply final and finishing touches to their messages and re-echo their
commitments towards making our nation a great place, with their policies.
Both
rally grounds were charged and packed to the maximum with party faithful and
supporters blowing their vuvuzelas and whistles. In the end, the two parties dispatched
their messages to their followers and solicited for votes.
The National
Communication Authority (NCA) in
collaboration with the National Media Commission (NMC), instructed all media houses to cease broadcasting and
showing political campaign adverts by 5th December, which was
strictly adhered to.
On 6th
December, as early as 8p.m, scores of enthusiastic eligible voters thronged
their various polling centers to begin queuing in anticipation for the next
day’s event (the voting process).Some of the electorates slept at these polling
centers, others used pieces of stones, tables, benches, chairs, mineral crates
among other things to indicate their presence and place in the queues while
they slept at the sides ahead of the morning. This was a widespread activity
which was present across almost every polling station across the country. These
electorates in their own words explained “we
want to cast our votes very early so we can go home to do other things, we do
not want to waste the whole day here” as reasons they came out in their
relatively huge numbers to queue as early as they did, the day before the election.
This phenomenon was not characteristic of men, females including nursing
mothers and other elderly ones queued at dawn as well. They were more than
determined to exercise their franchises. Some brought along with them their
children, food, water and insecticide treated bed nets under which they slept
at the polling stations.
I could
imagine the number of people in the various homes at these times when almost
all the elderly had left and headed towards the polling stations. All in all,
it was a great sign, it only went on to affirm the commitments Ghanaians have
made to our electoral process. They were by and large very determined to
exercise their electoral or civil right on the Election Day. It was an
incredible sight to behold. The time for vote-casting was 7:00 a.m. on December
7.
ON
DECEMBER 7TH, THE ELECTION DAY(D-DAY)
STORY
BY: KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM
Day
finally broke on the Election Day, and everyone was eagerly anticipating how
the process would go. The process was to begin at 7:00 a.m. and close at 5:00 p.m.
In some polling centers across the country, the process did not start at 7:00 a.m.
because some electoral materials had not arrived at the polling centers. Some
centers reported that ballot papers had been destroyed by the rains that poured
earlier and needed to be replaced, other centers reported malfunctioning and
total breakdown of verification machines. Some polling centers began the voting
a little after 7:00 a.m. since they did not have any major hiccups. It was very
disappointing to know that some centers as late as 12:00 noon, had not begun
the the voting process because they had not got their problems resolved.
There
were relatively calm atmospheres across all polling centers except for a few
isolated cases, where electorates grew a little frustrated and impatient with
the Electoral Commission Officials for what they described as ineffectiveness
on their part. The security apparatus were on top of their game; they were up
to the task and ensured that no confusion erupted. At around 3:00 p.m. some
polling stations had as much as 600-900 people still in queues to have their turn,
and there was no way all these people could have voted before 5:00 p.m., so the
Electoral Commission issued a statement to that effect, that all polling
centers which suffered equipment breakdown could go back to continue the voting
process the next day, so that no eligible and willing voter was disenfranchised.
Those
who were in the queues before 5:00p.m were allowed to vote provided they were
in there before the 5:00 p.m. Timeline deadline struck, till the last man voted,
even at 11:00 p.m. It was only in a few constituencies in the Tema and Ablekuma
metros and a few other constituencies that recorded a few skirmishes here and there,
but by and large the military and the police were always in control.
In
centers where voting had ended, counting and collation began, and the results [provisional
and then certified] were being reported to the various media houses via their
correspondents and reporters. Everyone was calm, monitoring and following the
results as they trickled in on television and radio. Wake-keeping was on, this
time not for a funeral or anything, but just monitoring the results as they
trickled in.
For the
first time in the history of elections in this country, voting lasted for two
days because the electoral commission made room for people who were likely to
have missed out on exercising their franchises had the original election
procedures been followed. The collation of results from all 275 constituencies
was done, and a fair picture of the trends was being noticed by the public.
During
the two days of voting, no very major incidents were recorded or reported, the
process was relatively peaceful.
KUDOS to
all the electorates for the manner in which they conducted themselves and Ghanaians
as a whole for the very high levels of tolerance and patriotism they exhibited
over the period, KUDOS to all the security personnel who kept wake to maintain
law and order everywhere, especially the police, military, immigration, fire
service among many others……..CONGRATULATIONS TO US ALL FOR A PEACEFUL ELECTION…………………..
DAYS
AFTER THE ELECTION (AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS)
STORY BY: KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM
DATE:
13TH DECEMBER 2012
Voting
had officially ended, and results were being collated. Political party
leaderships were doing their own collation at their party offices as well. The
media were reporting and bringing the results to their respective audiences.
Results were trickling in very thick and fast, and almost all 275 constituencies
had their results certified.
As per
the Electoral laws of the country, the only mandated body that could call or
declare election results was the Electoral Commission. They were locked up in
their strong room still doing the collation, and until they had finished all of
the 275 constituencies, they would not declare the results. There was a
considerable level of tension at party offices, ahead of the Electoral
Commission’s declarations.
It was
about 3p.m and on the streets were scores of party supporters jubilating and
making merry already even before the election results were declared. Those
whose party was in the lead as per the results that had come in so far on radio
and television, were jubilant, those who were trailing also refused to see and
accept it as it were, but rather insist also that they were in the lead and as
such were celebrating too. It was 5p.m, the time the Electoral Commission had
announced they were going to call the elections after they were through with
the collation of the results from all the constituencies, yet nothing doing.
The conference room at the E.C head office was set and arranged for the
declaration.
It
turned out that some leading members of the NPP, sensing and noticing that they
were trailing, began raising issues over the authenticity of the election
results being churned out by the various media houses. They claimed there had
been some sorts of election rigging in favor of the government.
The Peace
Council, chaired by Rev.K.B. Asante met with the leaderships of the various
parties and the E.C in a closed-door meeting, to resolve the wrangling in the
ranks of the NPP.The E.C requested for the evidences the NPP claimed to have had,
so it could be looked into. Time was fast running out, the people of Ghana were
so eager to know who had won; they had been waiting for so long.
After the
hour and half’s closed door meeting, it appeared that(and according to what we
were told),the evidences the NPP presented
to the E.C were “inadequate”, they then requested more time, and that the
E.C delayed the result declaration until
they had checked and presented the full complement of the evidences they had,
which the E.C declined.Dr.Kwadwo Afari Gyan,the Chairman of the E.C,told them
that he had no much time to wait and that once the results collation was done,
he was going to call the results, so that if the NPP or any other party or
individual had qualms about it, they could go to the supreme Court to seek redress,
as stated in the Electoral laws of the country.
All this while,
large numbers of NPP sympathizers and party supporters massed up around the
E.C’s head office protesting against what they called “rigged elections”. They
were in their party T-shirts as well as other party paraphernalia and were
halted in their tracks by the heavy security personnel around the E.C’s office,
who had cordoned off the whole area to prevent any disruptions by the large
number of [if you like] disgruntled NPP supporters.
The time
all Ghanaians were waiting for, finally arrived. The conference room had been
filled to capacity by many local and international journalists, local and
international election observers, and political party leaderships.E.C officials
took their seats and the Chairman of the Commission declared the results as
follows:
·
NDC(JOHN
DRAMANI MAHAMA)-5,574,761 votes representing 50.70%
·
NPP(NANA
ADDO DANQUAH AKUFFU ADDO)-5,248,898 votes representing 47.74%
·
PPP(PAPA
KWESI NDOUM)-64,362 votes representing 0.59%
·
GCPP(HENRY
HERBERT LARTEY)-38,223 votes representing 0.35%
·
PNC(HASSAN
AYARIGAH)-24,617 votes representing 0.22%
·
CPP(MICHAEL
ABU SAKARA FOSTER)-20,323 votes representing 0.18%
·
INDEPENDENT
CANDIDATE(JACOB OWUSU YEBOAH)-15,201 votes representing 0.14%
·
UFP(KWASI
ADDAI ODIKE)-8,877 votes representing 0.08%
TOTAL NUMBER OF REGISTERED
VOTERS-14,158,890
TOTAL NUMBER OF VALID VOTES
CAST-11,246,982
TURN OUT PERCENTAGE-79.43%
REJECTED BALLOTS-251,720
And by these, the NDC’s candidate had won the
elections in a straight forward one-time style, since our Electoral law states that
“for a candidate to win an election in the first round, he or she must win with
a margin of 50% plus 1 vote”. And the NDC’s candidate had won by 50.70%, so he
was declared the president elect. The E.C chairman Dr. Afari Gyan said, “Based
on the following results, I hereby declare H.E President John Dramani Mahama of
the NDC the winner of the 2012 presidential elections and as president elect”.
By this declaration the supporters of
the NDC burst into celebrations all over the lengths and breadths of the country,
singing and dancing as well as blowing whistles and tooting their car horns and
the other main opposition party supporters were aggrieved. At the Parliamentary
level, the Ruling party, which happened to be the winners of the presidential elections,
won the majority of the 275 parliamentary seats. The CPP lost its only seat in
the Jomoro constituency rendering it seat less in parliament, the PNC managed
to win just a seat in parliament, while the PPP,GCPP,UFP as well won no seat in
parliament.
Aggrieved and agitated supporters of the main opposition party massed up
in the large numbers at their flag bearer’s residence impressing upon him to
reject the election results and not to concede defeat. The NPP leadership have
since made it clear that they would not accept the results and would be
visiting the supreme court to seek the overturn of the results and to seek
redress for what they called deliberate vote rigging in the government’s favor
by the officials of the E.C.Followers and sympathizers of the NPP have since
been demonstrating and registering their
displeasure at the Obra spot near Circle for the last three days.Leadership of
the party have since told their followers to remain calm and not take the law
into their own hands, and that they would use legitimate procedures through the
supreme court to seek redress after the are done with assembling the full
complement of their evidences.
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