17m Ghanaians elect new president today

A total of seventeen million voters across the 16 regions of Ghana will today elect their new president. Twelve candidates including the incumbent president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, are in the race for the Jubilee House, the Ghanaian seat of power. But analysts say the contest is between the incumbent president, Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the […]

A total of seventeen million voters across the 16 regions of Ghana will today elect their new president.

Twelve candidates including the incumbent president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, are in the race for the Jubilee House, the Ghanaian seat of power.

But analysts say the contest is between the incumbent president, Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party and former president John Dramani Mahama, of National Democratic Congress, who are both pushing for their reelection to serve their final four years term as president.

Other candidates are: Mr Christian Kwabena Andrews, of the Ghana Union Party, and Madam Brigitte Akosua Dzogbenuku of the Progressive People’s Party, Madam Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party.

Others include: Dr Hassan Ayariga of All People’s Congress, Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet of the Convention People’s Party, Mr Henry Herbert Lartey of Great Consolidated Popular Party, Mr Percival Kofi Akpaloo, Liberal Party of Ghana.

The rest are: Mr Alfred Kwame Walker, an independent candidate, and Mr David Asibi Ayindenaba Apasera of the People’s National Convention.

Of all the 12 candidates, whoever secures 50 per cent plus one eligible in the Presidential contest will be announced the eight President of the Fourth Republic.

Also, in the election today, 275 members of parliament will be elected to serve for a four-year term of parliamentarian function in the country.

The election will start from 7:00am to 5:00PM in the 38,622 polling stations across all the 275 constituencies of the country.

This is the eighth successive election. The previous seven have produced five  presidents till date. But there have been only two parties that have managed to  win the presidency.

The ruling NPP has produced incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo and John Agyekum  Kuffuor (2000 – 2008) whiles the main opposition NDC has produced the late  Jerry John Rawlings (1992 – 2000), late John Evans Atta Mills (2012 – 2016) and  John Dramani Mahama (2012 – 2016).

Chairperson, Electoral Commission (EC) Mrs Jean Mensa, said at a media interaction ahead of the commencement of the exercise that the commission was ready to conduct successful, credible, fair, orderly, and peaceful elections.

She said electoral materials, including ballot boxes, thumbprint pads, stationery, identifications jackets, polling station booths, rechargeable lamps, indelible ink, educational posters, registers, ballot papers and seals had been distributed ahead of time and in adequate quantity.

She noted that the Commission had procured, prepared and distributed 74,800 brand new Biometric Verification Devices to enhance the integrity and credibility of the polls.

“It is expected that the enhanced features of the devices will speed up the verification process and go a long way to ensure that only persons whose biometric details are captured in our system vote on the Election Day, ” she said.

The EC Chairperson informed that 233,632, temporary officials made up of Returning Officers, their Deputies, Presiding Officers, Verification Officers, Name Reference Officers as well as a Covid-19 Ambassadors for the December 2020 Elections had been deployed.

Mensa explained that a comprehensive training programme had been conducted for the officials with the requisite skills to enable them to perform excellently on Election Day.

Mrs Mensa remarked that the Commission had put in place stringent COVID-19 protocols to help curb the spread of the virus.

“Each polling station will have thermometer guns, Veronica Buckets for hand washing, Sanitizers, Liquid Soap and Tissue Paper,” she said.

The EC Chairperson said more polling stations had been created so that no station would hold more than 749 voters.

She said the move had led to the increase of the polling stations from 33,622 to 38,622 polling stations.

Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, the Inspector General of Police and the Chairman of the National Election Security Task Force, at a media briefing disclosed that a total of 62,794 security men would be deployed to maintain law and order at the polling stations.

They will be drawn from the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, National Intelligence Bureau, Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Prison Service and the Ghana Immigration Services.

He said the security agencies had learnt lessons from the voter’s registration exercise and had planned very well to take care of contingencies.