Ghana’s Successful Elections

By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.

As a Carter Centre short term observer for the rerun of the Ghanaian presidential election, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the electoral process and to visit several polling stations on Election Day. Added to my understanding of the failed electoral system in Cameroon, I am in a position to highlight certain points of interest.

Ghana has a population of 22 million; there were some 12.4 million registered voters aged 18 years and above. Each registered voter was issued a voter’s card upon registration which bore the name of the voter, date of birth, the polling station at which the voter would cast his/her vote, the photograph of the voter and the serial number of the voter in the electoral register. The registers were computerized and controlled centrally by the Electoral Commission; they were arranged in constituencies and polling stations.

An NGO, CODE Incorporated (Code.Inc, Ottawa, Canada) seemed to have helped in registering the Ghanaian voters and providing the election material because the electoral registers and voter’s cards met the description CODE.Inc gave us in 2004; and the indelible ink that was used at polling stations bore their label. It would be remembered that agents of CODE.Inc visited Cameroon in March 2004 and offered to register 7 million voters within some 2 months at the cost of about 2 billion FCFA. Although they demonstrated the registration process by registering some of us and issuing a registration card within less than 2 minutes each, their proposal was turned down by the Ministry of Territorial Administration. In any case, in Ghana, the Electoral Commission was solely in charge of identifying such an agent and engaging it for the registration of voters and the provision of the materials for the election.

There were 22000 polling stations in 230 constituencies. In each constituency, there was a returning officer appointed by the Electoral Commission. Further, at each polling station there was a presiding officer appointed by the Electoral Commission plus three other commissioners. Each candidate had at least one representative in the polling station. There were also international and local election observers and at least one security officer. My partner and I in our team of two were at a polling station in Adenta Constituency in Greater Accra Region at 6.30 am to observe the opening formalities.

The ballot boxes were transparent. Before voting started at 7 am, material that included ballot papers, counting sheets to keep track of male and female voters, indelible ink, voting booths, ink for thumb printing and other necessary material were verified and the ballot boxes were opened and shown to the hundreds of voters that had lined up at the polling station since 3 – 4 am. Once the emptiness of the ballot box was ascertained by the voters, the box was closed and the presiding officer placed his seal such that the box could not be opened without breaking the seal; the polling agents of candidates could also place their seals after that of the commission had been affixed.

Following the opening formalities, voters then came before the commission one after the other for identification and the casting of their votes. There was a single ballot paper that bore the name, photograph or symbol of each candidate; each ballot had a number printed on it and had attached to it a counterfoil with the same number printed on it. Each voter was required to produce a voter identification card or such other evidence as could prove that the person was the registered voter with the particulars in the register.

Before a ballot was delivered to a voter, it was stamped on the back with an official sign of the commission. A mark was then placed against the name of the voter in the register to indicate that a ballot paper had been used. The index finger of the voter was then soaked in indelible ink. Voting involved secretly placing a thumb print against the candidate of the voter’s choice. The ballot paper was then folded and the vote was cast by putting it in the ballot box in the presence of the presiding officer and the polling agents, and in full view of the public. All the polling stations we visited were in the open air. No envelopes were required.

We were at another polling station in the same constituency at 4.30 pm to observe the closing formalities and the counting process. At the close of the poll at 5 pm the seals were broken and the ballots poured on the table and counted; a declaration of the counts was signed by the presiding officer and representatives of candidates. The results were then publicly announced by the presiding officer and a copy of the declaration was given to the representative of each candidate. Further, all the counted ballots were returned to the ballot box and seals were affixed again by the commission and the representatives of candidates. Unused, spoilt and rejected ballots as well as the counterfoils of used ballots and the electoral registers and records were sealed apart, and all were forwarded to the returning officer of the Constituency.

The ruling party (New Patriotic Party – NPP) candidate for the rerun of the presidential election was Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who seemed to enjoy the advantages of his party’s incumbency, had larger posters and seemed to be preferred by the Daily Graphic, "Ghana’s largest selling paper since 1950", which was very available within the circles of international observers. The other candidate was Prof John Evans Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). The outgoing president John Kufuor voted at around 11 am; we were present at the polling station when he cast his vote, although it was out of Adenta constituency. After voting, he indicated on the solicitation of dozens of journalists that there were two sides of the divide and he belonged to one, so he would be happy if the candidate of his side won. Following the national vote tally by the Electoral Commission, his candidate lost. The opposition NDC candidate Atta Mills
won and is now the President of Ghana.

Such an outcome would have been impossible if such a close elections was not managed by an independent electoral commission, headed by an experienced Chairman like Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. If he had to forward the trends to another body controlled by the outgoing President, not to talk of one of the candidates, the trends would probably have been reversed and the ruling party candidate would have won.

Paul Biya knows like John Kufuor in Ghana that he belongs to one side of the divide and would like the candidate of his side (probably himself) to win. But unlike Kufuor who had no control over Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Biya has full control over ELECAM. This is why ELECAM is incapable of organising the type of successful elections we just witnessed in Ghana because the seeds of its own failure have been planted in the ELEAM law and its subsequent application.