Election Year 2016 in retrospect

It is Friday morning, December 9, 2016, two clear days after the December 7 election to choose a President to lead the country and government business from January 2017 to January 2021 and the Electoral Commission (EC) has still not announced the winner.

Tensions are high and Ghanaians are virtually sitting on tenterhooks as the long wait after the keenly contested election is very unnerving and people begin to fear the worst. Shops that were closed on Election Day still remain closed and it is as if the country is on a long holiday.

Pressure mounts on the EC to declare the results without further delay, after the two leading political parties – the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have both held press conferences to announce that they have won the polls or are “in a commanding lead.”

The Peace Council has urged the EC to expedite action in releasing results of the election and also called on the political parties to desist from declaring themselves winners of the election.

The EC Chair, Mrs Charlotte Osei, is, however, adamant, insisting that she has not received enough results from the 275 constituencies across the country to declare the winner and asks Ghanaians in a press conference to give the EC more time to collate the results.

Sigh of relief

But as Ghanaians braced themselves to receive news of the final results on the 72- hour mark allowed by the Constitution, Mrs Osei finally announced the winner of the election at about 8:45 p.m. on Friday, December 9.

The incumbent President, John Mahama, however, preceded that very important announcement with a telephone call to his main contender, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at 7:51 p.m., during which he conceded defeat and followed up with a press conference at his residence, where he made his concession speech.

As was to be expected, supporters of the NPP poured out onto the streets in spontaneous and wild jubilation deep into the night after the statements from the President and the EC. Others not belonging to the NPP joined in the celebration and the entire country went to bed satisfied on the night of December 9, 2016 that once again Ghana had sailed through an election successfully.

Final results

The year 2016 will mostly be remembered as an election year and will go down in history as the time that an incumbent president for the first time was unable to go for a second term. It will also be remembered as the time that an incumbent lost with a heavy margin of over one million votes and when Ghana had its oldest president.

The winner, Nana Akufo-Addo, won the election at age 72, which makes him the oldest incoming president.

At the time of the declaration of the results, the winning party’s (NPP’s) candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, had garnered 5,716,026 of the votes, which constituted 53.8 per cent, as against President Mahama’s 4,713,277, representing 44.40 per cent.

Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) placed third with a total of 105,682 votes, taking 1.0 per cent of the total, while the Convention People's Party’s (CPP) Ivor Greenstreet got 25,395 of the votes cast representing 0.24 per cent.

The National Democratic Party’s (NDP’s) Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings had 16,878, 0.16 per cent, Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Congress (PNC) had 22,214 votes, thus taking 0.21 per cent of the votes and the Independent candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah, also had 15,889 (0.15 per cent).

The total number of voters in the register, according to the EC, was 15,712, 499, but only 10,781,609 people voted in the 275 constituencies and there were 166,248 rejected ballots. The turnout, according to Mrs Osei, was 68.62 per cent.

Intrigues before ‘D’ Day

But the election did not start on a blistering note. In fact, apart from the very slow build-up, there were many uncertainties as the day inched closer, making many Ghanaians wonder whether there was indeed going to be an election or if a constitutional crisis loomed.

An initial decision by political parties to have the 2016 election on November 7 was also shot down by Parliament, when it voted against the Constitutional Amendment Bill to change the election date, citing the unpreparedness of the EC for the new date.

At the last count, 17 presidential candidates and political parties registered to contest in the election. But on October 10, 12 of them received the most shocking news of their disqualification for not meeting all the requirements spelt out by the EC.

Only four had successfully gone through, according to the EC Chair, while one’s fate was on hold pending the outcome of a suit against him.

The successful candidates were Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP, President Mahama of the NDC, Mr Greenstreet of the CPP and the independent candidate, Mr Osei. On hold was Mr Akwasi Addae Odike of the United Progressive Party (UPP).

After some of the disqualified candidates, including Dr Nduom, had taken the matter to court, the Supreme Court ruled that the EC should give all the disqualified candidates an extended period to file their nominations.

It was only Dr Nduom, Nana Konadu and Dr Mahama who made it through the second time, thus bringing the total of eligible candidates to seven.

The 10 who could not stand for election, despite paying their filing fee of GH¢50,000 and which issue Dr Nduom went to court but lost, were: Mr Hassan Ayariga of the All People’s Congress (APC), Mr Kofi Akpaloo of the Independent People’s Party (IPP), Mr Thomas N. Ward Brew of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), Mr Alfred Kwame Asiedu Walker and Dr Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP).

The rest were Madam Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Mr Richard Nixon Tetteh of the United Development Systems Party (UDSP), Nana Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party (UFP), Mr Kwabena Adjei of the Reform Patriotic Democrat (RPD) and Mr Odike of the United Progressive Party (UPP).

Prophesies and predictions

Prophesies and predictions also abounded from some pastors and prophets, as well as surveys conducted by individuals and organisations, that one of the candidates of the two major parties was bound to win the election.

Infrastructural development

Many infrastructural facilities were inaugurated, especially getting to the latter part of the year under review. Key among the infrastructure were roads and interchanges such as the ones at Kwame Nkrumah Circle and Kasoa, as well as a host of community day senior high schools across the country.

Some plants such as the Mudor faecal and treatment plant were also inaugurated.

Energy

The country experienced power supply challenges at the beginning of the year due to a cut in the supply of gas from Nigeria.

However, the government said with the coming on stream of the TEN fields and a second and a third floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), which is due to set sail from Singapore in March 2017 for offshore Cape Three Points, the country’s power challenges would be a thing of the past.