The Election

Election Day in Koforidua was eerily quiet. The BBC had a team in Ghana and reported on early morning polling activity. Queues had been building since the small hours and in some cases stations had not opened as materials or staff were not present.
Mid-morning I went to one of the internet cafés in town. On the way I met my friend, Grandson, a school teacher. He was not going to vote. He wanted nothing to do with corrupt politicians, whatever their party. He was particularly affronted by Nana Akufo-Addo. He had received an automated phone call from the NPP flagbearer, but the message did not include any greeting and Nana had not asked how he was. ‘How are you?’ is a standard part of any Ghanaian greeting and Grandson argued that he could have no respect for somebody who wanted something from him, without being remotely interested in his well being. Many churches had cancelled services to allow people plenty of time to vote. I passed the polling station at the Presby School. There was a queue outside but all appeared quiet. On the way back I met three young men who asked if I had voted. They proudly showed the indelible green ink on their right thumbs, indicating they had marked their ballot papers.
Over the rest of the day I occasionally listened to Joy FM, an Accra based new station. There were reports of practical problems at some of the 21,000 plus polling stations and some islands in Lake Volta, north of the Afram Plains were still not in business in the early afternoon. Queuing in some places took many hours and the Electoral Commission stressed that if you were in a queue at the official closing time of 5 pm you would still be allowed to vote.
As it grew dark results began to trickle in. Votes are counted at polling stations, so early results are only for stations and not for whole constituencies. Votes are listed by party in the presidential and parliamentary polls.
The Electoral Commission has 72 hours in which to declare the result and took nearly full advantage of this. By Monday morning it was looking pretty certain that neither NDC nor NPP had enough votes to assure a ‘one touch’ victory for their presidential candidate. To avoid a run off and win the race, one candidate must take at least 50 % of the vote plus one additional vote. Only the Electoral Commission can announce the result, so the media had an impossible job in reporting on the results as they came through and only being able to speculate vaguely on the potential outcome. At one point, Joy FM was effectively saying Atta Mills of the NDC could still be president if he received 140 % of the uncounted votes.
The result, when it came was that there was barely a percentage point between the NDC and the NPP and that the NPP was less than a percentage point from a one touch victory. The other six presidential candidates did abysmally. There will be a run off election on 28 December and consequently another three weeks of campaigning.