Confusion mars 2016 vote
The mundane post-polls posture of the country’s main political parties – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – prior to the Electoral Commission’s declaration of the results, has witnessed a deviation this year.
With spleen, The Chronicle has observed the parties’ declarations of victory to their respective folds, which seem to gradually deface the beauty and peaceful conduct of last Wednesday’s elections.
The National Campaign Manager of the NPP, Mr. Peter Mac Manu, at dawn yesterday, put party supporters in a festive mood with the declaration of victory for his presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Addressing the press at the NPP’s Asylum Down headquarters Mr. Mac Manu said after tabulating 80 percent of polling station results, the NPP was ahead with 4.6 million votes, representing 54.91 per cent, while the NDC’s President John Dramani Mahama had 3.6 million, representing 43.38 per cent.
This, however, did not auger well with the NDC, whose Director of Elections, Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, wasted no time in condemning the attitude of his opponent.
According to him, Mr. Mac Manu’s action was irresponsible, treasonable and on a path of jeopardising the peace and security in Ghana.
But surprisingly, at the tail end of his delivery, Mr. Ampofo committed the same ‘irresponsible and treasonable act’ he had accused the NPP’s Campaign Manager of.
His was to comfort his party supporters with the claim that the NDC’s parallel voters’ tabulation showed that Mahama was doing very well, explaining that the NDC, as ‘a law abiding party, won’t go contrary to laws of the country and declare our candidate the winner.’
In the afternoon, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, topped it up with his discomfort at the media and the NPP’s projection of Nana Addo as the winner of the elections.
With the chanting of ‘Toaso, toaso, toaso’ at the party’s ultra modern headquarters in Accra, Mr. Anyidoho told party supporters that President Mahama was in a comfortable lead.
Mr. Anyidoho, who was in a militant mood, went on to vent his anger at the NPP’s National Youth Organiser, Sammi Awuku, who had reportedly told the youth to mass up on the streets to celebrate the NPP’s victory, because the EC was delaying with the declaration of the results.
Koku Anyidoho felt the NPP young man, by his action, was inviting chaos and violence from the ruling party. He thus responded that he was prepared to mobilise the young ones from his party to deal with jubilant NPP youth.
As if that was not enough, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia. Wh, all along, was in faraway Jaman Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, following the postponement of the polls there, surfaced in the evening with a press conference to refute media figures and those of the opposition party, which had placed Nana Addo in the lead.
“From the results collated so far, NDC is cruising to victory. We are, however, unable to mention results,” he told the press, while advising party supporters to remain confident, because should the trend continue, President John Mahama would be retained as president.
The NPP flag bearer, Nana Addo, was not left out of the struggle for dominance. Minutes after the NDC General Secretary had put his microphone down, Nana Addo assembled journalists and party supporters at his Nima residence to assure them of his win. But the assurance did not go without the caution to remain calm as they awaited the EC to officially declare the results.
“It’s important that we behave as Ghanaians. We have been through this before, and we are likely to go through it again… very soon, new policies are going to be introduced to change the economy. We are going to work tirelessly to bring about prosperity for all. We have to bring aboard everybody, no matter their political persuasion,” he stated.
Revealing that all candidates in the election, except President Mahama, had congratulated him, he seized the opportunity to “thank majority of our competitors and there is going to come a time for me to thank so many people.”
Greater Accra Regional Chairman Ade Coker would not want to be left out the historic moment. He also urged his party supporters in all the regions to be bold to celebrate their victory.
To help settle the score, the National Peace Council (NPC), after expressing dissatisfaction at the developments between the two major parties, called on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in particular, to retract its 54.91 per cent victory claim for its flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Speaking on Accra-based TV3 at Thursday dawn, the Chairman of the NPC, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, said, what the two parties have done “is a recipe for concern”, adding that it was premature for any party to declare results.
Meanwhile, the EC boss, Madam Charlotte Osei, at a press briefing in Accra later in the evening, assured the parties of accurate results, hence the delay in the collation. This was after she had made her awareness of the confusion between the parties known.
She didn’t mince words in telling them that the “EC does not declare results collated by political parties…There’s a process that the EC follows, which is legal.”
Madam Osei, thus, asked them to remain calm as they waited for the constitutional provision of 72 hours
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