Memories of December

Memories of December 7
By Kofi Akordor
Ghanaians were heaping tonnes of praise on themselves. The foreign observer missions were profuse in their commendation at the turn of events on Sunday, December 7, 2008. All were unanimous — the presidential and parliamentary elections had been held in a peaceful atmosphere without any violence or intimidation and the outcome was a free and fair. Whether everything had been transparent could, however, not be told with any conviction.
The country succeeded in maintaining a record as one of the few countries on this turbulent continent called Africa where catapults, machetes, bows and arrows, guns and military armoured vehicles were not deployed into action to complete the unfinished business which the ballot box left undone.
We have emerged from a gruelling electioneering and energy sapping voting process with our national pride intact, even though one could not discount some disappointments and bruised or dented egos.
Sunday, December 7, 2008 is now history and we can only live with its memories, whether bitter or sweet and some useful lessons to guide us in similar endeavours in future. For the candidates/parties and their die-hard supporters, they must begin to realise that the saying; “All that glitters is not gold”, can have its equivalent on the political battlefield like; “All that crowd at political rallies do not transform into votes”. Otherwise, we would not have been subjected to another round of gruelling campaigning with its insults, lies and vain promises. The consolation is that it is our own decision to go for another round of the exercise so that at the end of the day the final choice will be our own and not an imposition from any quarter.
The two candidates — Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Professor John Evans Atta Mills — whose inability to cross the 50 per cent plus mark has forced us into the run-off may have to review their campaign strategies. By now it should have dawned on them that distributing fat wads of currency notes to so-called opinion leaders and king makers or bussing thousands of unemployed youth to rally grounds after pumping gallons of hard liquor into them will not do the trick when it matters most. As they always say, ‘it is our own money so if you bring it we shall collect it’.
They should address current problems confronting the people and focus more on their strengths than the perceived weaknesses of the opponent. Trying to undermine an opponent with lies and concocted stories only irritate the electorate and do not bring good returns on the D-day. Some of the adverts in both the print and electronic media are just waste of money and add to the subtractions.
Sometimes it is better they listen to their inner selves, instead of those hordes of advisers who may strip them naked without they knowing. Remember the story of the king with the beautiful cloth? He was told only his enemies would not see the wonderful cloth. In order not to be labelled as an enemy of the king, everybody saw the cloth until an innocent child pointed at the king’s nakedness. By then it was too late. The harm had been done. Once they know the cash is flowing, the advisers and special assistants will be at their best to give you all sorts of assurances and if you fail to put your ears on the ground you will wake up a day after the election laughing at the wrong side of your mouth.
For the party in power or the candidate contesting on the ruling party’s ticket, some of the promises do not make any impression on the electorate. They ask several questions which you may not hear, let alone try to answer. It becomes worse when, in a frenzy, we begin to initiate projects which we well know may never be completed. That amounts to insulting the intelligence of the electorate and they never forgive those who inflict such pain on them.
The use of the tribal or ethnic card can have its boomerang effects. While it may favour you in one area, it may work against you in another area. Moreover, it will be hypocritical to condemn ethnic bias when you think it is working against you but highlight it when you are in the gain. So it is wrong for any candidate to go to his area or home region and tell the people to vote for him because he is one of them and yet complain when the other candidate also makes a similar plea to his people. No President can govern a divided country and, therefore, the candidates must themselves be appealing to all sections of the public. Ethnic messages during campaigns have the potential of dividing the country.
The media received their fair share of praise and commendation from the observer teams that came to monitor the elections. They all concluded that the press is free and vibrant and contributed a lot in information dissemination before, during and after the elections.
In fact, the media played their watchdog role effectively and for this mention must be made of the FM radio stations which kept listeners glued to their radio sets throughout the voting process.
Media practitioners will, notwithstanding the high marks given them, be the first to admit that a lot of them contributed to the heightened tension which preceded the elections and which persisted throughout the exercise.
Some of the media practitioners became more or less propagandists for political parties and contesting candidates and threw the ethics of the profession to the wind in the process. If they do not know by now, some of the materials they release into the public domain do more damage to their clients than good.
The EC has come out again from another electoral process with good testimonials. It still has to improve upon its performance in the run-off. What many do not know is that what was seen as the EC’s good performance was actually a reflection of the patience and tolerance of Ghanaians. Electoral violence seldom occur during the voting. But that should not be taken for granted. It is the counting, collation and announcing of the results which give room for suspicion and trigger violence. This idea of counting, recounting and recounting of ballot papers must be checked.
The EC must also address the long queues which formed at some polling stations, as against the smaller number of voters at certain polling stations. When people stand for long hours in the tropical sun to vote, they are prone to anger at the least provocation and this can be compounded if there should be any electoral dispute.
The National Election Security Task Force has already made that observation and recommended the opening of more polling stations on December 28, 2008 for the run-off of the presidential elections. We hope the EC will listen to good advice.
Many people are of the view that it is time we modernised our electoral system. In this computer age, it is humiliating to stand in the sun for hours to thumbprint a ballot paper. The counting system is another ordeal which creates room for manipulation and unnecessary suspicion. It should be possible to computerise the voting system and no amount spent in this direction will be wasted.
Sunday, December 28, 2008 is not far away. It is the expectation of Ghanaians that it will come to pass peacefully, only this time, there will be a President-elect.