According to the CODEO results announced at teh weekend in Accra, the President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), garnered 53.75 per cent, while his closest contender, President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic congress (NDC), polled 44.32 per cent of the votes.

The EC’s official result from 271 out of 275 constituencies pegged the result at 53.85 per cent for the winner - Nana Akufo-Addo - and 44.40 for President Mahama.

The CODEO results also pegged votes for Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) at 1.07 per cent (against EC’s 1.0 per cent); Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), had 0.27 per cent (against 0.24 per cent by EC); Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP) had 0.18 per cent (16 per cent by EC), while Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC) had 0.26 per cent as against 0.21 per cent assigned by the EC.

The only independent Presidential Candidate, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, had the same result on the score cards of the two institutions — 0.15 per cent.

Voter turnout rate as estimated by the PVT is 69.33 per cent with a 0.48 per cent margin of error. This is very close to the 68.62 per cent announced by the EC.

About PVT

The PVT is an advanced and scientific election observation technique that employs well-established statistical principles and utilises information and communications technology (ICT) to observe elections.

It involves deploying trained accredited observers to a representative random sample of polling stations starting at 6 a.m. Throughout the day, they observed the process and transmitted reports in real-time about the conduct of voting and counting, as well as the official vote count to a central election observation point using text messaging.

CODEO introduced PVT in election monitoring in Ghana in 2008.

Consistent result

Jointly addressing a press conference in Accra, Mr Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe and Professor Miranda Greenstreet, co-chairs of the local observer group, said, “CODEO is confident that the results of the 2016 presidential polls declared by the Electoral Commission are the accurate reflection of how Ghanaians voted in the December 7 polls.

“Accordingly, CODEO advises the contestants in the presidential election, their supporters and the general public to place confidence in the official presidential election results as declared by the Electoral Commission.”  

According to CODEO, its findings were based on information received from 1,491 PVT observers located in all the 275 constituencies (including Jaman North constituency) by midnight on Thursday, December 8, 2016.

A total of 553,872 Ghanaians cast their ballots at the sampled PVT polling stations.

Prof Greenstreet said not only did CODEO’s PVT estimates match the official results of the EC, its observers also reported that the two main parties, NDC and NPP, had party agents at over 99 per cent of polling stations and that the party agents signed the official declaration of polls and were given copies of that document at all those polling stations.

Further, evidence from CODEO’s PVT observers showed that voting and counting were conducted in accordance with CI.94, the electoral laws and the Constitution.

Confidence in EC

“Given that the official result announced by the Electoral Commission for each candidate falls within their respective PVT estimated confidence ranges, CODEO can confidently confirm that its PVT estimates are consistent with the official presidential results,” she said.  

With President Mahama and the other contestants in the race accepting the result, CODEO also congratulated President Mahama and all other contestants of the presidential election for conceding defeat and congratulating the President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, on his victory.

“CODEO further commends the maturity Ghanaians have shown by remaining calm and peaceful throughout the voting, counting and collating processes,” she stated.  

Prof Greenstreet reiterated CODEO’s earlier call for the need for political parties, their leaders and the entire political class to take adequate measures to bridge political polarisation that characterised the 2016 Election campaign, especially between the NDC and the NPP, and to reduce the winner-takes-all tendencies in Ghana politics.

“CODEO also commends the security agencies for their professionalism in maintaining peace during the period of voting, counting and collation of results.

“In this election, it is Ghana and Ghanaians who have won. It is not an exclusive victory for any political party or candidate,” she said of the outcome of the election.