Ghana: Election goes into second round

  1. Posted on Wednesday 10 December 2008 - 16:58
    Dolphyne
    Image of Dolphyne
    Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne and Kent Mensah, AfricaNews editors in Accra, Ghana
    Ghana's election is set for a second round contest come December 28 this year. The ruling New Patriotic Party won the elections but failed to secure the constitutionally required 50% + 1 votes. The election which was keenly contested was lauded by many as generally peaceful, fair and transparent.
    Afari-Djan
    Ghana’s Electoral Commission announced the results of the December 7, elections on Wednesday. The Chairman of the Commission Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Djan said the NPP had 4,159,439 (49.13%) of the total valid votes cast. The main opposition party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) also had 4,056,634 (47.92%) of the total valid votes cast.

    The CPP came third with 113494 (1.34%) of the valid vote cast, PNC had 73,494 (0.87%). The DFP also had 27,889 (0.33%) of the valid vote cast as well as the RPD had 6,889 (0.08%) of the valid votes cast. The DPP also had 8,653 (0.10%). The only independent candidate in the race had 19,342 (0.23%) of the valid votes cast.

    The total number of registered voters was 12,472,758 out of which 8,671,272 voted. The total number of rejected votes amounted to 205,432 representing 2.4%. Total percentage turn out was 69.52.

    Dr. Afari-Djan said the commission had not declared two parliamentary results ( Akwatia and Asutifi south) because of the controversy surrounding them and that the Commission will meet later to take a decision on what to do.

    Dr. Afari-Djan thanked the media for the good work done in the coverage of the elections. He said the accusations of delay in declaring the election results by the media and certain politicians are unfounded as the Commission has to check and recheck the results for the avoidance of any doubts.

    He said: “We owe it a duty to be fair and to recheck the results to minimize the incidence of controversy after the announcement.”

    He also debunked the rumours that the Electoral Commission of Ghana is bound my law to declare the final results in 72 hours from the date of the polls. Dr. Afari-Djan also said the Commission was not very happy with the media for reporting there was an information blackout on the results from the Commission. He said such reports “turn to pollute the electoral atmosphere.”

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