The very first general election I ever witnessed was the general election held on 8 February 1951. I was too young to take any meaningful part but you can imagine the thrill that went on in my circles about the possibility of electing our own government.
Hitherto, our district commissioner had been a white man. Our regional commissioner (whom my grandmother, a queen-mother, called “Komisan!) Almost all the members of the governor’s executive council were white men, though one or two chiefs were included, mainly for colour purposes and very little else, as the governor was little minded to listen to them.
The thrill we experienced, as we gathered round radio stations (where possible) as the radio announcers interrupted normal programmes to announce the results.
I can hear them: “This is the Gold Coast Broadcasting Service. The general election. Accra Central-Kwame Nkrumah 19,000…..!) We could not wait for the announcers to come to the end of their sentences before we erupted into cheers. This election, although a thrill for us, was absolutely peaceful. And through it, we had Ghanaian ministers for the first time. For us schoolchildren, the most interesting appointment was that of Kojo Botsio as Minister of Education. Names we could not pronounce, such as Abavana, soon glided over our tongues easily.
But by 1054 – that is, only three years later – things had changed drastically. The CPP of Dr Kwame Nkrumah which had won the 1951 election was now facing a very strong and determined opposition from the National Liberation Movement (NLM). So when the broadcasters started saying again: “This is the Gold Coast Broadcasting System. The general election!” listening to the results was more than a mere thrill.
What the politicians of the time did was to campaign more vigorously than we had ever seen before. For a lot hung on those elections. If the CPP won, the Gold Coast would have a unitary government and become independent with that. If the NLM won, however, Ghana would become a federation — like what was later to become known as the Federation of Nigeria.
Despite the tense atmosphere in which the election was held, the results themselves were greeted with the same calm equanimity as we had seen in the 1951 election. It never occurred to anyone that results if elections could be “rigged”.
Rigged by whom for what? Everyone knew that there were different political opinions in the country. If you rigged and got a majority through shady means, could you change the minds of those who hadn’t voted for you?
In any case, the people who stood for elections in those days were people who believed in SOMETHING. The CPP people believed strongly that a unitary form of government would give them the strong platform upon which to stand and negotiate with the British for the Gold Coast to become independent. And those in the NLM believed – equally strongly – that a federal system of government would enable the districts and regions to enjoy more democracy. The NLM counted cocoa farmers among its greatest supporters because cocoa farmers overwhelmingly believed that the Central Government in Accra, through its Cocoa Marketing Board, was taking too much of the export earnings from cocoa and giving too little to the farmers.
These were core issues that aroused wild emotions, yet when the results of the elections were announced, they were treated with total credibility. And thankfully, it was usually all over in the course of ONE NIGHT! By the time we woke up the next morning, everyone knew who had won and who had lost. There were a few scattered results in remote areas that were yet to be declared. But the national picture was as clear as daylight.
In 1960, we held a referendum to decide whether Ghana should become a one-party state. By that time, the CPP government had detained most of the vocal opposition members through the Preventive Detention Act or driven them into exile for fear of being detained without trial. But people believed in the referendum results.
It was not until solders began to rule us – after the first coup d’etat in February 1966 – that rigging of votes became a possibility. Even then, it was until the referendum on whether or not we should have a Union Government – as proposed by General Kutu Acheampong, that massive alteration of votes was undertake. Even then, the rigging wasn’t done by the Electoral Commission, under the redoubtable Mr Justice Abba, but by soldiers who forced him to flee to Togo in fear of his life.
The soldiers who rigged the referendum for Acheampong were so amateurish, however, that the first results they officially declared were from the Northern part of the country! This was counter-intuitive, for past elections had always shown that results from the North were delayed for some time. When they realised their mistake, Acheampong’s soldiers stopped issuing any results whatsoever, and everyone realised what they were up to.
People laughed at the clumsy efforts of the soldiers and Acheampong was unable to implement the Union Government idea, although he had “won” the referendum.
Unfortunately, the refusal of the Electoral Commission of today to release election results on time has created the same unease that occurred when the Unigov results were delayed. Maybe Madam Charlotte Osei doesn’t know the history of Ghana too well, because if she did, she would never have created the same sort of vacuum that Acheampong created during his Unigov referendum. In particular, she would have realised that after Acheampong became a figure of fun in Ghana, it was easy for his own military colleagues to remove him from office, an event that eventually led to his being tied to the stake and shot.
I should be saying “WELL DONE, NANA AKUFO ADDO!”£ right now, but due to the machinations of Mrs Charlotte Osei and her Electoral Commission, I can’t do that.
Mr Kofi Annan, who as a former secretary-General of the UN, understands what harm can be done to Ghana’s image abroad over disputed election results, has asked for the results to be declared without further delay.
The Peace Council has said basically the same thing, as have some social organisations and the election observers.
But Mrs Osei and whoever she may be working for, are sticking to their guns. The 72-hour deadline for declaring results was almost upon us as I finished this article. But the declaration of Nana Addo as victor had still not occurred.
A lot will fall upon the head of Mrs Osei if something untoward happens in the course of the incredible silence.
Poor, poor woman – to be used this way by people who will discard her like soiled underwear – the moment they think they have got what they want from her.
What do they want? To take Ghana “backward ever”! For you don’t the interests of a nation by plunging it into instability by stealing its election.
By Cameron Duodu