ECOWAS Observer Mission adds voice

THE ECOWAS Observer Mission to the December 7 polls has commended Ghanaians for turning out in their thousands to exercise their franchise peacefully.
It said there was a high expectation and enthusiasm among the electorate and their determination to cast their votes, which, it said, was demonstrated by the patience with which the electorate waited for several hours in queues to cast their votes.
A former Head of State of the Republic of Nigeria, General Dr Yakubu Gowon, who was also the head of the Mission, stated this at a press conference to present its preliminary observation of the December 7, 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections.
He stressed the need for the Electoral Commission to initiate an enactment of a legislation on campaign financing by political parties.
That, the Mission said, would check the monetisation of the electoral process by political parties.
It noted that in some cases the campaigns were associated with the open flaunting of wealth and financial inducements by political parties.
Gen Gowon noted that some of the rules governing campaigning were not scrupulously observed, and noted that “even though electioneering campaigns officially ended on December 5, 2008, a presidential candidate held a rally on December 6, 2008 while a political party ran a paid campaign documentary on the same day”.
He, however, commended the Electoral Commission (EC) for discharging its duties with commendable competence, fairness and firmness, stating that the EC had at the time of compiling their report lived up to its slogan of ‘Transparency, Fairness and Integrity’.
Gen Gowon said there was a fair balance in the selection of the electoral officials, and each polling station was equipped with one pair of polling booths and ballot boxes — one for the presidential ballot and the other for the parliamentary.
The boxes, he admitted, were transparent and secured with serialised seals, making them less susceptible to manipulation, and further noted that one unique thing about the Ghana election was that the party agents were allowed to add their party security seals to those provided by the EC.
On the voting process, he observed that an average of three to four political party agents were present at most of the polling stations, noting that agents of the two main leading political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), were present at all the polling stations.
At the polling centres, he observed that the EC took adequate measures to give preference to the aged, the physically challenged, expectant mothers and voters with infants. For the blind, the Mission observed that provisions were made for them to vote, either by being assisted by a trusted person or independently using a tactile ballot holder.
Gen Gowon said the ECOWAS Observers did not record any incident of organised fraud, such as attempted multiple or under-aged voting and impersonation, but in the few individual cases of attempted impersonation or fraud that the Mission heard about, the culprits were quickly apprehended.