Has Dr Bawumia’s concession shamed the electoral commission?

Ghana held presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday December 7, 2024. Polls closed at 5.00pm and by 10.00am on Sunday December 8, 2024, the winner of the presidential election was known without the Electoral Commission (EC) announcing a single result. That was less than twenty-four hours after close of polls. In fact, the results of most of the parliamentary elections were also known. This is the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic and it’s even possible that could be the first ever in Africa. It’s the speed of the concession and the outcome of the elections that are the subject of this brief article.

First, let me commend Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice-President and presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for his extra-ordinary and admirable decision to concede defeat before a single result was officially declared. By his action, he has shown that he is a consummate believer in democracy, free, fair and transparent elections and by so doing, as he said in his concession speech, he put Ghana first and saved the country from potential tension from the inaction of the electoral body with constitutional responsibility for organising and managing the elections. This was unique, exemplary, commendable and Dr Bawumia decision to concede defeat early deserves praise. He is a true statesman and a patriot, and as a Ghanaian, I am proud of him

But why did it take the EC this long to declare the results, when the two leading political parties knew almost all the outcome of both the presidential and parliamentary results? I will return to this later.

As at midnight of Saturday December 7, 2024, the EC was telling the world that it had installed sixteen fax machines to receive the presidential results, and these were shown on the tv screens. I was shocked that the EC was to rely on fax machines to receive the presidential election results in the digital age of Artificial Intelligence. The demeanour of the EC was that of complacency, and an unwillingness to inform the country and the world of both the presidential and parliamentary election results.

The delay in the declaration of results at Constituency Collation Centres were causing tensions particularly between supporters of both NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), leading to some disturbances and destruction of elections materials and properties. The unjustified and criminal acts by party supporters cannot be excused for the delay by the EC to announce the results. These are criminal acts and all those involved must be condemned, identified, arrested, charged and prosecuted immediately without fear or favour to political affiliations.

Prior to Dr Bawumia’s concession, the Communication Director of the main opposition party, NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi addressed the press to inform Ghanaians that from their own internal collation results from polling stations across the country, the NDC had won both presidential and parliamentary elections emphatically and that ex-president John Mahama was the president-elect. He then called on Dr Bawumia to concede defeat. I was sceptical about the claims by Sammy Gyamfi because some were too good to be true, such as, sweeping all parliamentary seats in at least, four regions.

Shortly after that Joy News informed its viewers that the Vice-President and NPP presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would speak to the press shortly. This made me to perhaps believe that the claims made by Sammy Gyamfi could be true because I have never heard of a presidential candidate wanting to speak to the media when not a single result has been declared by the EC. That is normally done by the party leadership or the campaign team. Moreover, I was also aware that the NPP had effective collation machinery in place to get the results from all polling stations as NDC.

Finally, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was on air, and he confirmed the claims made by Sammy Gyamfi earlier. That, the data from NPP’s internal collation results showed that the ex-president, His Excellency John Dramani Maham has won the presidential election decisively and the NDC has also won the parliamentary election. This is unprecedented in the political history of Ghana because not a single result had been declared by the EC.

With this announcement, the EC appeared to have been made irrelevant, though constitutionally, it must declare the official results. How did the body charged with organising and managing both the presidential and parliamentary elections unable to declare the results that the two political parties had?

The EC appears not only to be dealing with dinosaur mechanism for reporting election results but has also put in barriers for early reporting of election results. The stages of Constituency, District and Regional Collation Centres are unnecessary, and cause unduly delays to the declaration of election results. The Constituency, District and Regional Collation Centres are also structures that could be avenues for some party and election officials to temper with election results and change the choice of voters. They are centres of unnecessary tension and risk of disturbances across the country that could one day disturb the peace of the country.

The humility of Dr Bawumia has shown that the Constituency, District and Regional Collation Centres are unnecessary and must be abandoned by the EC. Election results should be collated at polling stations and sent directly to the EC headquarters to collate and announce the result to end the delays. The long delays in declaring results breeds suspicion, mistrust and pose a risk to the peace of Ghana. Why was the EC reluctant to announce the results? Was the EC not happy with the outcome, so the delay?

I congratulate both the president elect, John Dramani Mahama and Dr Bawumia because by his selfless decision to concede, saved Ghana from being on tenterhooks for long and the risk of potential post-election disturbances. Therefore, Ghana won on December 7, December 2024.

The results of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections are unprecedented because NDC’s victory is emphatic and NPP’s defeat, seismic. NDC broke the eight redrew the political map of Ghana for the next four years and academics, social commentators and pundits will dissect and discuss what this means for the future. It’s not only a big loss for NPP but a referendum on president Nana Akufo-Addo’s eight years presidency, which will shape his legacy. The post-election recrimination and inquisitions have already began and will continue for months, if not years to come.