ANALYSIS: Ghana had another smooth election but must address a major electoral flaw

“Finally, it is over,” Jean Mensa, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), said as she declared John Mahama, the candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the president-elect of Ghana.

That moment, captured by dozens of cameras, resulted from a political compromise following the failure of the election result management system.

The election adds to Ghana’s credentials as one of the most stable democracies in West Africa, where ruling parties lose elections and concede defeat.

Ghana’s election result management involves declaring results at polling units before they are taken to Constituency Collation Centres, where they are collated and declared. The constituency results are then transferred to regional collation centres, and each region faxes its results to the National Collation Centre for the final declaration.

At the moment Mr Mahama was declared the winner of the 7 December presidential poll, results from nine constituencies – estimated at about 947,116 votes – were unavailable. The constituencies were Awutu Senya East, Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Akwatia, Suhum, Techiman South, Dome Kwabenya, Ablekuma, Ahafo Ano North, and Damongo.

In Damongo, an irate mob burned down the EC office. The crisis in these constituencies made transmitting results from some regions to the National Collation Centre impossible.

“In the event that all the valid votes from the nine constituencies above voted for the candidate who placed second, the total number of votes he would have garnered would be 5,604,430, representing 46.17 per cent of the total valid votes, which would have been 12,138,538,” Ms Mensa said while declaring Mr Mahama winner.

What Ms Mensa left out of her speech was that earlier, the Electoral Commission had met with the major political parties in the race to reach a compromise on how to proceed amid the crisis. Representatives from three parties — the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) — attended the meeting.

“In the event that all the political parties and the EC are not able to gather all the statements of the poll for all polling stations within the Damongo Constituency for the conclusion of the election, the matter shall be referred to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission for a final decision,” a communiqué issued after the meeting read.

Mr Mahama polled about 6.3 million votes, while Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia of the NPP polled 4.5 million. Mr Mahama’s party also won a majority in parliament.

But here are some questions: what would have happened if the race had been close, say with a margin below 947,116 votes? What would have happened if the political parties did not have robust result management systems? What would have happened if Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia had refused to concede or disputed the election results?

Mr Bawumia conceded defeat early on Sunday, long before the EC National Collation Centre announced a single result. He stated that his party’s results showed that they had lost and went on to congratulate Mr Mahama on his victory.

This concession speech set the tone for subsequent events. Before the speech, several voices within the NPP and NDC had urged their supporters to storm collation centres and confront anyone who “acted funny.”

The parties held several press briefings between the close of the polls and Sunday morning when Mr Bawumia made the speech.

Some party officials’ comments contained inflammatory rhetoric that could have set the country aflame. While observers hailed these events as a sign of Ghana’s democratic maturity, the process must be reviewed urgently to address the glitches.

Experts say the NDC must use its strength in parliament to push for a review of the result management system and use the findings to amend the electoral law. The NDC is projected to have a two-thirds majority in the Assembly. This majority may enable the incoming government to enact significant changes to the electoral law.

Before the poll, the EC made three major recommendations for electoral reforms to the current parliament, but they were all rejected. Passing serious legislation in the current parliament was difficult because no party had a clear majority.

Reviewing the existing result management system should form part of the next electoral law amendments. Instead of relying on political compromise, codifying these contingencies in law may protect the country in future elections, especially in cases where results are too close, or candidates are unwilling to concede.

While the overall conduct of the election earned the EC praise from local and international observers, the result management system let down the process and could have created a crisis but for Mr Bawumia’s concession.

Lessons Nigerian political parties must learn from their Ghanaian counterparts

Ghanaian political parties’ election result management systems played a crucial role in the process. Over the years, both the NDC and NPP have invested in result collation systems that allow them to gather results from their agents at every polling unit.

Peter Mac Manu, the NPP campaign manager, explained during a meeting with Yiaga Africa that his party’s result management system was faster than the EC’s.

“Because we have well-trained structures at the polling stations where results are declared, we are able to know our results even before the Electoral Commission gets theirs. After all, when the Electoral Commission finishes the elections, they count them at the polling stations.

“They post a copy at the station and give copies to the polling agents. We must be quicker and ahead of them. Before they come to the collation centre, we have already done our collation. In my office, our 2020 polling station results are still available,” he said.

True to his words, the party obtained details of its votes less than 24 hours after the polls closed. This data, gathered by the party, enabled Mr Bawumia to concede defeat.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that Mr Mac Manu received training on how to set up a data centre from the Nigeria-based Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and also the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) system from some civil society organisations in Ghana.

Major opposition parties in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections failed in this area. Despite disputing the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), both Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have not presented alternative results to counter those declared by INEC.

Messrs Obi and Atiku anchored their claims on the glitch that affected INEC’s Result Viewing (IReV) portal. IReV involves scanning or photographing polling unit result sheets (Form EC8A) and uploading them to the portal. However, a reported glitch delayed the uploading of presidential election results during the election.

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Despite this, every polling unit agent is entitled to a copy of Form EC8A. Yet, neither the PDP nor the LP has presented collated results from the forms given to their agents.

Mr Mac Manu criticised Nigeria’s opposition parties for having poor result management and presented a compendium of all the 2020 presidential results from Ghana’s over 40,000 polling stations.

“If people in Nigeria sit back and say that IReV isn’t working and that’s the end, I don’t understand. Where are your documents from the polling stations?” Mr Mac Manu said.

In many polling units visited by PREMIUM TIMES in Ghana’s Volta Region, polling agents collected results and kept manual tallies of all voters. Even before sorting and counting, they knew the turnout.

This scientific approach by Ghanaian parties has helped streamline the process. However, the country was fortunate this time because the margin was not close, and Mr Bawumia acted as a statesman. This may not always be the case.