Ghanaians yesterday hailed the Electoral Commission (EC) for the serene organisation of this year’s general election.
The Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, after casting his vote at the Calvary Presby Polling Station, at Haatso in the Dome-Kwabenya constituency of the Greater Accra Region, urged Ghanaians to stop worrying about naysayers and look at the good side. He said he was impressed with the process so far.
“This is how civilised people do their things. It tells you the level of development here in Ghana. I would like us to all stop worrying about pessimist things and look at the good sides. We are making progress. When we go like this, very soon America, the West and others, would come and become election observers here because we are doing it right. I am very happy,” he told the media.
For her part, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, expressed satisfaction about the Electoral Commission’s work, especially with the regular updates on its activities.
Nana Konadu, who cast her ballot at the Ridge Church School in the Korle-Klottey constituency, described the process as smooth, compared with the previous election processes, adding that she had no problem with the process.
The Registrar of the Scholarships Secretariat, Kingsley Agyemang, also commended the EC for a good work.
“So far so good. I must commend the Electoral Commission of Ghana for doing a good job and ensuring that the whole voting process is smooth, despite the few hitches recorded at some polling stations,” he posted on his Facebook wall.
Smooth
Also, the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, after casting his vote at Bole in the Savannah Region, expressed appreciation about the smooth running of the election.
“I hope that the atmosphere we saw here will be the same everywhere in the country and if that happens that means voting will go smoothly and I hope that the same applies to the counting and collation,” he expressed optimism.
He however expressed worry about some missing names in the register.
“These [names missing from the roll and the breakdown of some machines] are some of the little things we kept complaining about. I mean the EC said it has eliminated 30,000 names, without saying whose names they were,” he said. But the issue, involving the missing name of his body guard, was eventually resolved, and he voted without any problem.
Hard work pays
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observer (CODEO), in presenting its mid-day situational report, yesterday said it “can confidently confirm that the arrangements put in place by the EC for the setup and opening of polls were adequate for most polling stations.”
In its preliminary situational result, presented at its National Information Centre in Accra, CODEO said upon arrival at polling stations yesterday morning, its observers (87.2per cent) met election officials present at their assigned polling stations.
“It is worthy to note that by rule, CODEO observers are expected to arrive at their polling stations by 6:00 am. Therefore, not seeing election officials upon arrival does not connote lateness on the part of election officials,” it said.
“Most of the polling stations (72.5per cent) had the required number of election officials (6). Another 18.6per cent had 5 officials, 5.9per cent had 4 officials, and 2.3per cent had 1 to 3 officials.”
“In 98.2per cent of polling stations where CODEO Observers are located, electoral officials respected their status as Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) accredited election observers and permitted them to observe the polls,” the report said.
The report added that “CODEO can confirm that a few of its observers are experiencing network challenges and have not been able to send in their information.”
“This accounts for the shortfall in the number of observers indicating they were permitted to observe.”
Ghana vrs US
Some Ghanaians have also compared the serene conduct of the election to the recently held US elections.
According to them, Ghana has proven that it can also beat the US in the management of some of its activities.
Kofi Bentil, Senior Vice-President, IMANI-Ghana, stated: “Monitoring the voting, short queues, relaxed people everywhere. People going about their lives as if nothing is happening.
“From reports, the average time for a person to vote in Ghana in this election is about 5 minutes. In USA some people spent 7 hours in a queue.”
About The Author
