The Electoral Results Delay that Put Ghana on Edge

I do believe every occurrence can be scientifically explained. In mathematical science therefore; f(x), y=mx+(c)

Meaning with a minimum of two points (y,x) & (y',x'), anybody can draw a straight line.

The reality in this matter of announcing the electoral result at this mature moment is that it is not difficult to deduce the actual winner from the data at hand.

If therefore, I could make the following assumptions:

1. No one in Ghana has won elections with more than 500,000 (half a million) votes. In fact the last time President Mahama won in 2012 it was by just some 300,000 votes.

Whereas the current leader in the polls has over 900,000 votes in fact circa some 1 million votes and counting.

2. It is also a fact that 50 NDC parliamentarians went to work for 4 years and slept on the job. So they were kicked out by their challengers who were doing the door to door job without pay for 4 years.

Personally, I thought it was just the 10:1 NDC:NPP parlamentarians were thought to have zero contribution in Parliament as revealed by the Odikro.com survey. But as you can see they were 50 overall.

Certainly, these 50 MPs, some of whom may have been old guards since 1992 and earlier, could have contributed to the fortunes of President Mahama but no, that did not happen because they took their salaries and remained in Accra ignoring the people in their constituencies to fend for themselves.

3. The only constituency that proclaimed they will vote "skirt and blouse" was Klotey Korle and even that person they were agrieved with actually won. So it means they voted for the president anyway.

4. Voter turn out the EC thought were abysmal and overall below 50 percent probably in the 40s of a percentage level. But as it turned out it was upwards of 60 percent. Although one particular constituency; Bekwai recorded 80 percent.

The EC is currently running against time. Since it has at best today or at worst 5:00pm tomorrow to declare the winner.

From my line graph analogy it is clear that the EC should as soon as possible declare the winner. Because she can and by doing that is what will calm the winners and losers as such.

It is also a good thing the President came out today to say he will accept the results.

The problem is president Mahama can not congratulate his opponent in that speech because he is still waiting for the EC's declaration even though he is aware of the obvious just like any Ghanaian.

The EC cannot complete it's work even after declaring the results. It will have to write up the final data to be official gazzette and that it can do in its own time. Hence, the EC should not seem like the end of the election is the end of it's duty to the Ghanaian people.

The only reason there is mass rigging of elections in Africa, is that people register for elections but do not go to vote on election day.

So low voter turn out allows for unscrupulous persons to pad ballot boxes to meet the registered number of voters.

"That is when ballot boxes and polling stations votes get padded."

In that process, because it is based on a guesstimate, it results in a difficult situation of over voting in all accounts as may have been reported in Ashanti Region.

This situation could pose serious dilemma for any Electoral Institution, in the sense that how do you account for an over run in votes?

A colleague of mine thinks there should be what he calls a "re-vote." I was thinking that could be a logistical nightmare if it occurs in a large region with very high population.

But luckily in Ghana now without the famous "pink sheets" paper trail, padded votes cannot be accepted. So if the NDC alleges over voting in the Ashanti Region, in reconciling the votes with the pink paper trail obviously would have caused the long delay of the EC in announcing the winner. In essence the displeasure shown by the teeming masses of voters in Ghana.

In conclusion my advise to the EC is that by the end of Friday it should have declared the winner and do the rest of the remaining job later. Notably the delayed voting areas in the remaining four areas of Afram Plains "dwarf islands" together with those of the Western Region. Since those are not populated areas that will change anything.

This approach is way better than any more delay that could spark unrest.

To the NDC and especially the General Secretary General Mosquito; Asiedu Nketia who have shown mean regard to the founder of the NDC President J.J. Rawlings for this long while have to make amends and go to apologize.

This approach of amends have been shown by the winning candidate Nana Addo to the founder in this election hence, his good fortune today.

The NDC as a party should find new people for the constituencies it lost and start real work right away. As it stands nothing can change the winner Nana Addo. And Mahama can not rule with majority parlamentarians being NPP.

Happy Merry Christmas to you all. It is early Christmas for the winners.

Source: Doe, James W.