Decision Time Today

Front Page (lead) (Daily Graphic), December 10/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine & Boahene Asamoah

AFTER more than 48 hours since Ghanaians cast their ballots to chose a new president for the country, many continue to sit on tenterhooks as the nation awaits the official results.
And all things being equal, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) will today hold a news conference in Accra to break the crunch.
At the time of going to press, the presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was slightly ahead with 2,657,652, representing 49.15 per cent of the valid votes cast from 142 of the 230 constituencies.
Closely following was Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who also had 2,594,752, representing 47.99 of the valid votes cast.
As per the Constitution of Ghana, the winner for the presidency would have to poll at least 50 per cent plus one vote.
Article 63 Clause Three states that “A person shall not be elected as a president unless at the presidential elections the number of votes cast in his favour is more than 50 per cent of the total number of valid votes cast at the elections”.
Clause Four of the same article also states that “Where, at a presidential elections, there are more than two candidates and no candidate obtains the number or percentage of votes specified in Clause Three of this article, a second election shall be held within 21 days after the previous elections.”
The Convention People’s Party (CPP), which was heavily tipped to have the potential to pull the elections into a run-off, unfortunately had 72,887 of the valid votes cast, representing 1.35 per cent, while the People’s National Convention (PNC) had 43,611 of the valid votes, representing 0.81 per cent.
The only independent candidate, Mr Amoafo-Yeboah, had 11,461, representing 0.21 per cent; the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), 17,379, representing 0.32 per cent; the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), 5,155, representing 0.1 per cent, while the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) polled 0.08 per cent of the valid votes cast.
According to the results released, 5,407,186 valid votes had been recorded, with 127,476 ballots rejected for reasons yet to be known.
Many have blamed the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) for not educating the electorate well enough to enable them to vote without spoiling the ballots, an allegation the commission has denied.
The EC has also been given a fair share of the blame, as people are of the view that the commission has confused them by initially announcing that any of the fingers could be used to make a print on the ballot paper. It was only in the last week to the elections that the EC insisted that the thumbprint was the one mark needed on the ballot paper.
Meanwhile, in anticipation of the winner of the presidential election, the country, particularly the Greater Accra Region, is very quite.
At the Ghana International Press Centre, for instance, the representatives of the various political parties and some election observers from all walks of life moved in and out in search of vital information on the elections.
Other members of the public who were anxious to pick some pieces of information also trooped in under the guise of patronising the restaurant within the premises to have lunch but ended up nosing for information.
Unfortunately, the release of the results from the EC was in the form of a trickle, to the disappointment of the many television, radio and print media men who had pitched camp to relay certified results from the commission to the general public.