FORMER President John Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to be leading the race as results of Saturday, December 7, presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana trickle in.
Already, the party has won some of the results collated at the constituency collation centres, trouncing its main rival and ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The NPP member representing Sekondi, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, lost to the NDC’s Blay Nyameke Armah.
Armah polled 14,558 votes to defeat Mercer who secured 11,084 votes.
The NDC has also won the Assin Central parliamentary seat in the central region currently held by NPP’s Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.
The NDC candidate, Megyimah Shaibu Nurein, polled 16,343 votes to defeat the NPP’s Nti Godfred Amewu, who polled 15,926 votes.
This is the first time in 24 years that the opposition NDC has won the Assin central seat.
In Assin north, NDC’s James Gyakye Quayson retained his seat. He won 18,023 votes to defeat the NPP’s Charles Opoku, who polled 13,599 votes.
In Yendi constituency, the NPP’s Farouk Alliu Mahama lost his seat to the NDC’s candidate, Abdul Fatawu Alhassan.
Alhassan secured 30,707 votes to beat Mahama who garnered 29,819 votes.
Similarly, Lawrencia Dziwornu of the NDC won the Akuapem south constituency, polling 15,438 votes to defeat Eric Yeboah Apeadu of the NPP, who got 15,304.
The NPP’s member who currently represents Kwesimintsim constituency in the western region, Hamid Armah, also lost his seat to the NDC’s Philip Fiifi Buckman.
Buckman polled 15,927 votes to defeat Arman who had 13, 317 votes.
While the results are being collated across the country’s 276 constituencies for onward transmission to the regional collation centre and then to the national collation centre in Accra, The ICIR could not immediately see any NPP candidate win a seat as at 6.00 am on Sunday when filing this report in the country’s capital, Accra.
On the election eve, The ICIR reported that the NDC candidate and former President John Dramani Mahama, and incumbent Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, of the NPP were set for a titanic contest as 18.7 million Ghanaians who registered to vote would decide their fate.
The electorate also voted to decide who occupies the 276 parliamentary seats across the country’s 16 regions.
The election took place in 40,976 polling units and 328 special voting centres.
Mahama and Bawumia had faced each other twice in the presidential elections with Mahama losing in both contests.
Mahama lost as an incumbent seeking re-election in 2016 and in 2020 when he threw his hat in the ring again to face Bawumia’s principal, President Nana Akufo-Ado whose tenure ends in January 2025. Bawumia was Akufo-Ado’s running mate in the two polls.
This time, Mahama faces Bawumia, the first-ever Muslim to seek Ghana’s presidency on a major political party’s platform.
Should Bawumia win, he will become Africa’s largest gold producer’s first Muslim president.
Mahama and Bawumia are from Ghana’s northern region.
10 candidates vying for Ghana’s presidency
Ten candidates, including a woman, are seeking to be president. Eight of the candidates are sponsored by political parties while four are running independently.
Among the independent candidates is an entrepreneur, Nana Bediako, whom many see as capable of causing a major upset. He is very influential among the youth aged 18 – 35 years, who form a large population (10.3 million) of the country’s registered voters.
Elections marred by killings, violence, others
Though the election was largely peaceful on Saturday, it recorded some ugly incidents, with more crises recorded during collation at polling centres at night. Voting started at 7:am while collation and counting of votes began at 5:pm across polling stations. The counting dragged into the night at many of the polling stations, which helped troublemakers to have more advantage to unleash mayhem.
In Ahafo Ano, security agents fire shots to disperse angry crowds who resorted to vandalising properties because of the delay in results collation. The process was consequently suspended.
The election commission officials were relocated for their safety while security officials remained at the centre to contain the raging crowd.
There was also pandemonium in Okaikwei North Collation Centre when two EC officials collapsed after they were exposed to pepper spray during a fight between NDC and NPP supporters.
One person was reportedly shot in the Awutu Senya East Constituency of the Central Region and one other was injured.
The deceased was allegedly killed by occupants of a vehicle who opened fire on him while heading home after vote counting at the collation centre.
The ICIR reporter saw dozens of men on power bikes moving from one polling station to the other while votes were being counted Saturday night at the Pig Farm area of Accra. It was not immediately clear which party they represented.
There was also confusion in the Dome Kwabenya constituency of the Greater Accra region as supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) claimed strange result sheets were smuggled into the centre.
Some of the incidents recorded at several polling units when voting was ongoing include an event in Ablekuma West constituency where a viral video shows a police officer being assaulted after allegedly attempting to smuggle ballot boxes to the collation centre.
The officer was intercepted by an angry crowd who physically assaulted and jeered him.
Police in the Ashanti region seized fake ballot papers allegedly thumb-printed in favour of a major political party during the election. The authorities are probing the incident.
An NPP agent was allegedly arrested for sharing money at a polling station in Krowor.
Another person was reportedly shot dead near the University for Development Studies (UDS) campus in Nyankpala following gunshots between NDC and NPP supporters.
Police also reportedly caught a party supporter with a gun. The incident occured at the St. Theresa’s School polling Station in the Okaikwei South constituency. Police identified the man as Michael Allotey.
One person was reportedly shot dead near the University for Development Studies (UDS) Campus in Nyankpala following gunshots between NDC and NPP supporters. Police also reportedly caught a party supporter with a gun.
The incident happened at the St. Theresa’s School polling station in the Okaikwei south constituency. Police identified the man as Michael Allotey.
EC blames overcrowding at collation centres for delays, promises transparency
The Electoral Commission (EC) blamed large crowds at various collation centres for the delay in the collation and declaration of results for the elections.
Addressing a press conference around 2 a.m. at the EC headquarters in Accra, the deputy chairman in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey, decried the attitudes of party supporters at various collation centres.
He blamed overcrowding for delays in results collation and said party supporters were blocking the EC’s officials from doing their jobs.
According to him, all party agents of political parties were enough at the collation centres to enable the commission to hasten collation and announce results on time.
The EC had said earlier that it accredited over 10,000 journalists for the polls to guarantee transparency.
The ICIR reports that all things being equal, Ghana should know their new president by Monday, December 9 if a clear winner emerges.
What happens if there is no winner in the election?
Ghana’s constitution requires that a candidate wins more than 50% of the votes cast in a presidential election to be declared winner. If no winner emerges at the first ballot, a second election would be conducted within 21 days.
Article 63(3) of Ghana’s Constitution says: “A person shall not be elected as President of Ghana unless, at the presidential election, the number of votes cast in his favour is more than fifty per cent of the total number of valid votes cast at the election.
“Where at a presidential election there are more than two candidates and no candidate obtains the number or percentage of votes specified in clause (3) of this article, a second election shall be held within twenty-one days after the previous election.
“(5) The candidates for a presidential election held under clause (4) of this article shall be the two candidates who obtained the two highest numbers of votes at the previous election.”
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org