EC declares winner today

Front page, lead, (Daily Graphic), December 30/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine & Boahene Asamoah

THE battle is not over and Ghanaians will go through yet another presidential election on December 28, 2008 after last Sunday’s elections failed to produce a clear winner.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), came ahead with 4,159,439 votes, representing 49.13 per cent of the valid votes cast, only 0.97 short of the 50 per cent of the 50 per cent plus votes required by the Constitution.
His closest rival, Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), had 4,056,634, representing 47.92 per cent.
This is the second time in the Fourth Republic that a presidential election had failed to produce a clear winner in the first round.
In the 2000 presidential election, then candidate John Agyekum Kufuor obtained 3,104,393 votes, representing 48.44 per cent of the 6,408,231 valid votes cast, while Professor Mills, the then Vice-President, polled 2,871,051, representing 44.80 of the total valid votes cast.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who broke the news at exactly 2.33 p.m. yesterday at a heavily attended news conference in Accra, said the results as announced were from 229 out of the 230 constituencies in the country.
Early on, the various radio and television stations had announced, provisionally, the possibility of a run-off after they had collated results from the various collating points in the constituencies.
According to the EC Chairman, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Conventions People’s Party (CPP) polled 113,494 votes, representing 1.34 per cent, while the People’s National Convention (PNC) polled 73,494, representing 0.87 per cent.
The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) polled 27,889, representing 0.33 per cent of the valid votes cast, while the only independent candidate in the election had 19,342, representing 0.23 per cent.
The Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) polled 6,889 votes, representing 0.08 per cent.
The total valid votes cast was 8,465,834, while 205,438 of the ballots, representing 2.4 per cent, were rejected for unexplained reasons.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the number of registered voters for this year’s elections stood at 12,472,758, while the results from the Akwatia Constituency, which were in dispute, would be announced at a later date.
While mentioning the electoral results of the presidential candidate of the NDC, Dr Afari-Gyan fumbled slightly, to the uproar of those present at the news conference, who laughed off the error.
“As you can see, I am very tired,” he explained immediately with a broad smile.
Dr Afari-Gyan commended the media for the manner in which they fed the electorate with all the provisional results as they trickled in from the various constituencies, but raised issues with the allegation that the commission had delayed the release of the results.
“We did not delay in the release of the results. We wanted to be fair to all the candidates who had spent a lot of time, energy and I suppose money in their campaigns by coming out with accurate figures,” he explained.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the commission had to check and double check every bit of the results that came in to ensure that what it announced was not in dispute.
Present to listen to the declaration of the much expected results were leading figures of the two biggest parties. From the NPP came Nana Ohene-Ntow, the General Secretary; Mr Kwabena Agyepong, a member of the Nana Akufo-Addo Campaign Team, and Sheikh I.C. Quaye, the Greater Accra Regional Minister and re-elected MP for Ayawaso East.
From the NDC side were the Chairman of the party, Dr Kwabena Adjei; Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General Secretary; Mr Rojo Mettle-Nunoo and Squadron Leader Clend Sowu of the Atta Mills campaign team.
Meanwhile, the two leading parties have described as fair the results of the presidential election as announced by the Chairman of the EC.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic immediately after the announcement of the results, Dr Adjei, the National Chairman of the NDC said although the party had been looking forward to a first round victory, it did not happen. However, he quickly described the results as fair.
He said the party would quickly re-organise its machinery for the run-off.
A member of the Nana Akufo-Addo Campaign Team, Mr Kwabena Agyepong, thanked Ghanaians for the show of support for the NPP candidate.
“We intend to carry the lead that the Ghanaian electorate have given to Nana Akufo-Addo to the second round,” hestated.
When asked which of the parties in the run-off the PNC would throw its weight behind, Alhaji Ramadan, its National Chairman, said, “We are going to convene a national executive meeting to take that decision.”