Mills declared President-elect

Political Page, lead, (Daily Graphic) January 5/2009

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

PROFESSOR John Evans Atta Mills of National Democratic Congress (NDC), was at the weekend pronounced winner of the crunch Presidential run-off elections held on December 28 to become the third president of the Fourth Republic from January 7, 2009.
In what has been described as the closest presidential contest in the country’s political history since independence, Professor Mills polled 4,521,032, representing 50.23 per cent of the total valid votes cast to beat his rival Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) who had 4,480,446, representing 49.77 per cent.
Total valid votes cast was 9,001,478 representing 72.91 per cent of the total number of registered voters of 12,472,758.
Making the pronouncement at exactly 11.05 am at a heavily attended news conference which featured both local and foreign media, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari said; “Without doubt, the road to today has been long and arduous for all concerned, but by God’s Grace we have finally arrived”.
As of 9.30 am, the leading members of the NDC including Dr Kwabena Adjei, chairman of the NDC, Mr Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary, Mr Baba Jamal, National Youth Organiser, Mr E.T Mensah, a leading member of the party and Member of Parliament for Ningo Prapram and still the MP-elect for the same constituency, among others, were seated to await what they were confident to be ‘good news’ for the NDC.
Conspicuously missing from the EC conference hall were the members of the ruling NPP, who, at the last announcement by the EC before the Tain election, were represented by the Chairman of the party, Mr Peter Mac Manu, Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the party and Mr Kwabena Agyapong, a leading member of the party.
The commission had since December 7, 2008 when the general elections were held, failed to declare a winner, first because of the inability of any of the eight presidential candidates who vied for the seat, to obtain the more than 50 plus one votes required by the constitution to be declared President.
In that contest, Nana Akufo-Addo came close with 49.13 per cent while Professor Mills polled 47.92 per cent to force the presidential elections into a second round.
Again, after the December 28 run-off which featured only the two parties (NPP/NDC), the EC could not declare a winner because of the commission’s inability to hold elections in the Tain constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region due to what its described as circumstances beyond its control.
There are 230 constituencies in the country but as of the end of the run-off elections, only 229 results were declared which put Professor Mills in the lead with 4,478,411, representing 49.87 per cent with Nana Akufo-Addo polling 4,501,466, representing 50.13 per cent.
Dr Afari-Gyan said; “a few days back, I stated that the results from 229 out of the 230 constituencies of the country had failed to produce an outright winner, so it had become necessary to conduct the run-off election in the Tain constituency of the Brong Ahafo region, where the election could not take place on December 28, 2008.”
He used the occasion to clarify some misconceptions in the minds of sections of the public saying; “let em emphasise that in compiling those results, contrary to what we have since been hearing from certain quarters, nothing was deducted from or added to the number of votes obtained by either the NPP or the NDC in Ashanti and Volta regions”.
Dr Afari-Gyan said he had indicated in his previous statements that the NDC had complained about the results of certain constituencies in the Ashanti region, and the NPP had similarly complained about the results from certain constituencies in the Volta region.
“I did also say that if evidence were provided in support of any such complaint, it would be examined on its merit and any relevant findings would be factored into the final declaration of results”, he said.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the commission sat and examined materials submitted by both the NDC and the NPP in the nature of evidence to support their claims and was able to make some findings.
“The NDC failed to submit complete sets of polling-station-by-polling station acceleration of results forms to enable a re-examination of the collated figures for the constituencies in Ashanti that they had complained about”, he stated emphatically.
“In respect of the materials submitted by the NPP in the nature of evidence, the commission found out that; some of the issues raised bother on criminality and, therefore, fall outside the competence of the Electoral Commission; In the purely electoral matters, the commission did not find the evidence provided to be sufficient to invalidate the results”, he said.
Dr Afari-Gyan said in view of the findings about the complaints of the two parties, the results as previously tallied from the 229 constituencies remained unchanged.
“Accordingly, the results of the run-off election in the Tain constituency which was held on December 2, 2009, had been added to the national tally.
In that contest of which the NPP officially boycotted, the NDC managed to poll 19,566 while the NPP had 2,035.