Two elections, one result: postmorterm of the Ghana/US elections pg 11
From a misty, miserable fog, the rain thickened to torrents. The sidewalks were deserted. The only sign of life in the already quiet neighbourhood was the cars and the occasional police sirens that broke the silence.
The lobby of the Hyatt Place hotel, my temporary place of abode, was filled with whispers and murmurings of the patrons. My strained ears picked up Obama and Romney in the barely audible conversations. It is Election Day in the US and I am in Atlanta, Georgia.
I had the American election flu even before I left Ghana, but the fact that I was just about witnessing history in the making - whether Obama, America’s first black president, retains or loses the elections, peaked my fervour. The two debates further increased my interest in the process.
The debates
From all indications, Americans take their Presidential debates very seriously, a reflection in the slump in Obama’s lead in polls in which he was leading prior to the October 3 debate. Mitt Romney’s performance on the night slashed Obama’s lead in several ratings, not even Obama’s rediscovery of his pep and punch in the second debate made much of a difference.
In Ghana, we had our version of the debates organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) which many believe the Convention Peoples, Party presidential hopeful, Abu Sakara, won. The IEA was condemned for the exclusion of the candidates of the smaller parties but that was not different in the US.
In the US, the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party had no place in the two debates.
Polling Stations
With the Ghanaian polling station indelibly ingrained in mind, I joined Jeanne Murphy, the coordinator of a programme I was participating in, to her polling station to witness the American elections.
The scene there was different from the conventional Ghanaian polling station; it was not an open space but rather a church auditorium. While the US use of electronic voting was known to me, the absence of a law enforcement officer first struck me.
Party agents
Another issue was that there was no such thing as polling agents representing any political party. The Polling Station Manager, whose name tag identified him as Bill, said it was because of the trust of the system. According to him, any party agent who came to the polling station had a tag that identified him or her, adding that they didn’t stay around for long.
In the Ghanaian system, party agents have been part of the system since 1992. Their presence for obvious reasons is to ensure some level of transparency in the electoral process. To a large extent, this has helped in keeping an eye on electoral fraud. Sadly, however, this group of people tend to fuel acrimony at polling stations.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) deployed at least 110,000 polling agents to man 26,000 polling stations across the country, yet the result is under contention.
I covered the elections in Manya Krobo and witnessed an incident at the Odumase Presbyterian Church Polling Station B that is worth sharing.
After counting and collating the ballots, there was one ballot that appeared unaccounted for. The NPP and the NDC agents had signed accepting the results, but one party agent, who would not tell me the party he was representing, insisted that the numbers did not add up.
In short, he refused to sign until the Presiding Officer calmed tempers and the ballots recounted. That is the role of party agents - vigilance. Once we have accepted that they should be part of our system, they need to make themselves relevant.
Voter ID
Ghana goes to the polls every four years with a lot of brouhaha over voter identification. Admittedly, the process has improved from the days of ID voter cards without pictures in 1992 to the introduction of pictures of voters on ID cards in regional capitals in 1996 to the biometric register in 2012.
Given the heat that voter registration generates in Ghana, I am still in a state of disbelief that with IDs, including a driving licence, a current bank statement, a valid US passport, a government employee photo ID, a valid US military ID card with photo, current utility bill showing name and address, and any valid photo ID card issued by any entity of the State of Georgia is acceptable for voting.
TV ads
Just like every TV station in Ghana had a slice of the parties advertising budget, the wave of television ad war was enormous in the US. While in the US, one clearly sees who is endorsing or paying for the advert, Ghana’s case is different. There were a lot of adverts on radio and television in Ghana throwing mud at opponents without the electorates knowing who sponsored or endorsed them.
According to the New York Times, as of September 2012, while Obama’s campaign had raised $934 million and spent $852 million, Romney raised $881 million and spent $ 752million on television adverts alone. The sources of funding for both parties are also public knowledge in the US. In Ghana, such figures are shrouded in secrecy.
Media and calling results
The time was 11.30 p.m, spontaneous jubilation sparked across the neighbourhood as the various networks hit 274 Electoral College votes for President Obama. Did the US have an Electoral Commission at all, I kept muttering to myself as I zipped and zapped through CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS and the local, WBS TV, all telling the same story-Obama had pulled victory out of the jaw of defeat.
By 12.35 a.m when Obama arrived at his campaign headquarters to deliver his victory speech, my eyes were heavy but still no word from the “American EC Chairman” neither did I hear from him or her, the next day. So the American EC chair is the media, I chuckled to myself.
Back in Ghana, it was December 9, 2012; the time was 7.15, a.m spontaneous celebration flashed through my neighbourhood. The reason? Joy FM had projected that President John Dramani Mahama had won the elections with some 14 constituencies to spare.
Some hours later, the station which had projected results since 2000, came under attack from some NPP gurus and sympathisers for calling the elections for President Mahama when the EC was yet to declare the result.
Casting my mind back to the US experience, I could only tell myself that “we would get there some day, the journey, however, is far." Forget about Ghana’s elections being under dispute, even in America it happens.
The lobby of the Hyatt Place hotel, my temporary place of abode, was filled with whispers and murmurings of the patrons. My strained ears picked up Obama and Romney in the barely audible conversations. It is Election Day in the US and I am in Atlanta, Georgia.
I had the American election flu even before I left Ghana, but the fact that I was just about witnessing history in the making - whether Obama, America’s first black president, retains or loses the elections, peaked my fervour. The two debates further increased my interest in the process.
The debates
From all indications, Americans take their Presidential debates very seriously, a reflection in the slump in Obama’s lead in polls in which he was leading prior to the October 3 debate. Mitt Romney’s performance on the night slashed Obama’s lead in several ratings, not even Obama’s rediscovery of his pep and punch in the second debate made much of a difference.
In Ghana, we had our version of the debates organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) which many believe the Convention Peoples, Party presidential hopeful, Abu Sakara, won. The IEA was condemned for the exclusion of the candidates of the smaller parties but that was not different in the US.
In the US, the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party had no place in the two debates.
Polling Stations
With the Ghanaian polling station indelibly ingrained in mind, I joined Jeanne Murphy, the coordinator of a programme I was participating in, to her polling station to witness the American elections.
The scene there was different from the conventional Ghanaian polling station; it was not an open space but rather a church auditorium. While the US use of electronic voting was known to me, the absence of a law enforcement officer first struck me.
Party agents
Another issue was that there was no such thing as polling agents representing any political party. The Polling Station Manager, whose name tag identified him as Bill, said it was because of the trust of the system. According to him, any party agent who came to the polling station had a tag that identified him or her, adding that they didn’t stay around for long.
In the Ghanaian system, party agents have been part of the system since 1992. Their presence for obvious reasons is to ensure some level of transparency in the electoral process. To a large extent, this has helped in keeping an eye on electoral fraud. Sadly, however, this group of people tend to fuel acrimony at polling stations.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) deployed at least 110,000 polling agents to man 26,000 polling stations across the country, yet the result is under contention.
I covered the elections in Manya Krobo and witnessed an incident at the Odumase Presbyterian Church Polling Station B that is worth sharing.
After counting and collating the ballots, there was one ballot that appeared unaccounted for. The NPP and the NDC agents had signed accepting the results, but one party agent, who would not tell me the party he was representing, insisted that the numbers did not add up.
In short, he refused to sign until the Presiding Officer calmed tempers and the ballots recounted. That is the role of party agents - vigilance. Once we have accepted that they should be part of our system, they need to make themselves relevant.
Voter ID
Ghana goes to the polls every four years with a lot of brouhaha over voter identification. Admittedly, the process has improved from the days of ID voter cards without pictures in 1992 to the introduction of pictures of voters on ID cards in regional capitals in 1996 to the biometric register in 2012.
Given the heat that voter registration generates in Ghana, I am still in a state of disbelief that with IDs, including a driving licence, a current bank statement, a valid US passport, a government employee photo ID, a valid US military ID card with photo, current utility bill showing name and address, and any valid photo ID card issued by any entity of the State of Georgia is acceptable for voting.
TV ads
Just like every TV station in Ghana had a slice of the parties advertising budget, the wave of television ad war was enormous in the US. While in the US, one clearly sees who is endorsing or paying for the advert, Ghana’s case is different. There were a lot of adverts on radio and television in Ghana throwing mud at opponents without the electorates knowing who sponsored or endorsed them.
According to the New York Times, as of September 2012, while Obama’s campaign had raised $934 million and spent $852 million, Romney raised $881 million and spent $ 752million on television adverts alone. The sources of funding for both parties are also public knowledge in the US. In Ghana, such figures are shrouded in secrecy.
Media and calling results
The time was 11.30 p.m, spontaneous jubilation sparked across the neighbourhood as the various networks hit 274 Electoral College votes for President Obama. Did the US have an Electoral Commission at all, I kept muttering to myself as I zipped and zapped through CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS and the local, WBS TV, all telling the same story-Obama had pulled victory out of the jaw of defeat.
By 12.35 a.m when Obama arrived at his campaign headquarters to deliver his victory speech, my eyes were heavy but still no word from the “American EC Chairman” neither did I hear from him or her, the next day. So the American EC chair is the media, I chuckled to myself.
Back in Ghana, it was December 9, 2012; the time was 7.15, a.m spontaneous celebration flashed through my neighbourhood. The reason? Joy FM had projected that President John Dramani Mahama had won the elections with some 14 constituencies to spare.
Some hours later, the station which had projected results since 2000, came under attack from some NPP gurus and sympathisers for calling the elections for President Mahama when the EC was yet to declare the result.
Casting my mind back to the US experience, I could only tell myself that “we would get there some day, the journey, however, is far." Forget about Ghana’s elections being under dispute, even in America it happens.
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