The journey to the 2016 Election has been chequered since the beginning of the Fourth Republican Dispensation in 1992.

    Though the country has been globally acclaimed as an oasis of peace reaping the dividends of democracy within the sub-region, the journey so far has not been rosy and has had to scale over many hurdles.

    Following agitation for a return to constitutional rule, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) was created to collate views on whether the country was ready for multi-party democracy. The National Commission for Democracy (NCD) under the Chair of the late Justice D.F. Annan toured the country to gather views on that and after the submission of its report, the PNDC constituted the Consultative Assembly to craft the 1992 Constitution.

    After a referendum in March 1992, the tonic was set for the establishment of political parties. This started with groupings such as the Busia-Danquah Club which metamorphosed into the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the EGLE (Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere) Club which later merged with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to campaign for then Head of State Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings to win the 1992 presidential election.

    Controversies

    The journey towards Ghana’s multi-party democratic election since 1992 witnessed a number of controversies which at some points threatened the march for a government of the people.

    The presidential election was held on November 3, 1992 whilst the parliamentary was held on December 29, 1992 with 200 seats for grabs. Interestingly, only 28.1 per cent of registered voters turned out for the parliamentary election. Though international election observers considered the preceding presidential election to have been conducted in a free and fair manner,  the opposition NPP claimed the election was fraudulent and, therefore, boycotted the parliamentary election after its defeat in the presidential election, citing rigging by the NDC.

    Seven political parties contested in the 1992 Election. They were the NDC, NPP, the People’s National Convention (PNC), the National Independence Party (NIP), the People’s Heritage Party (PHP), the National Convention Party (NCP) and the EGLE Party. The NCP and the EGLE entered into an alliance with the NDC.

    Before then, Ghana had had its last election under the Third Republic in 1979, 13 years earlier.

    1992 election results

    In the 1992 polls, out of the 7,401,370 registered voters, the late Prof. Albert Adu-Boahen of the NPP garnered 1,204,764, representing 30.29 per cent; J.J. Rawlings garnered 2,323,140, representing 58.40 per cent; followed by the late former President, Dr Hilla Limann of the PNC, with 266,710, representing 6.0 per cent. Kwabena Darko of the NIP had 113,629 translating into 2.86 per cent and General Erskine’s 69, 827 translating into 1.76 per cent.

    The PNDC set up the Interim National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the chair of the late Justice Josiah Ofori-Boateng, ably supported by Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan and the late Esumuajahene, Nana Oduro Numapau II, who supervised the first election under the Fourth Republican dispensation.

    Afari Gyan takes over

    Dr Afari Gyan then took over the saddle as the Chairperson of the INEC, now called the Electoral Commission (EC), tasked with the supervision of the 1996 election which he managed successfully.

    1996 results

    The NDC’s J.J. Rawlings garnered 4,099,465, NPP’s J.A. Kufuor had 2,870,878 and the PNC’s Edward Mahama got 211,136.

    After President Rawlings ended his eight-year term from 1992 to 2000, the race was now between his Vice, the late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills and John Agyekum Kufuor of the NPP, which saw Mr Kufuor winning the 2000 election after a run-off.

    2000 and 2004 results

    The NPP’s John Agyekum Kufuor got 3,131, 739 (48 .40 %), NDC’s John Atta Mills had 2,895,575 (44.80 %), PNC’s Edward Mahama polled 189,659 (2.50 %), with CPP’s George Hagan getting 115,641 (1.80 %)

    The National Reform Party’s (NRP) Augustus Goosieh Tanoh garnered 78,629 (1.10 %), Great Consolidated People’s Party’s (GCPP) Dan Lartey had 67, 504 ( 1.00 %), while the United Ghana Movement’s (UGM) Wereko Brobbey polled 22,123 (0.3 %).

    However in 2004, another controversy which emerged threatened to derail the democratic gains as some bigwigs in the NDC claimed the NPP had rigged the election, arguing that the then Chair of the NPP, the late Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey, had unilaterally sat in the comfort of the Castle Gardens and declared the results of that election in his party’s favour.

    Prof. Atta Mills, who referred to himself as the “Asomdweehen,” refused to bow to pressures from his party bigwigs and accepted the results of the election, anchoring his faith in the principle that, ‘’It is only God who crowns kings’’ and, therefore, decided to bide his time.

    The NPP’s John Agyekum Kufuor got 4,524,074 (52.45 %), NDC’s John Atta Mills had 3,850,368 (44.64 %), PNC’s Edward Mahama polled 165,375 (1.92 %) and the CPP’s George Aggudey garnered 85,968 (1.00 %)

    Events in 2008

    President Kufuor also had his two terms of office from 2000 to 2008 and his heir apparent, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, emerged as the NPP’s flag bearer to contest Prof. Atta-Mills of the NDC who was gunning for the presidency the second time in 2008.

    Events were to unfold in the 2008 Election as election in a constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, Tain, could not be held due to the late arrival of election materials. As a result, the election for that constituency had to be rescheduled. The leadership of the NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo once again, as happened in the 1992 parliamentary election, boycotted the rescheduled election in that constituency and paved the way for the NDC to regain political power in January 7, 2009.

    2008 Results (First and second rounds)

    In the first round of the 2008 election, the NDC’s John Atta Mills got 4,056,634 (47.9 %), NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo had 4,159,439 (49.13 %) and the CPP’s Papa Kwesi Nduom polled 113,494 (1.34 %). Others are the PNC’s Edward Mahama who got 73,494 (0.87 %), DFP’s Emmanuel Ansah-Antwi who gathered 27,889 (0.33 %), DPP’s Thomas Nuako Ward-Brew with 8,653 (0.08 %), Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah, an independent candidate, who garnered 19,342 (0.23 %), and RPD’s Kwabena Adjei, who also got 6,889 (0.08 %)

    In the second round, NDC’s John Atta Mills got 4,521,032 (50.23 %) whilst the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo got 4,480,446 (49.77 %)

    2012 presidential election

    Things turned sour in the 2012 Election when the NPP’s presidential candidate and the national chairman refused to accept the results of the election and petitioned the Supreme Court, urging the apex court to overturn the results of the election in their favour, citing irregularities as their reason.

    In the case that was popularly dubbed the ‘’pink sheet’’, it took the Supreme Court about eight months to affirm the legitimacy of the 2012 election which declared Mahama as ‘’de jure’’ President of the Republic.

    President John Dramani Mahama of the NDC listed 5,574,761, representing 50.70 per cent,  with Nana Akufo-Addo recording 47.74 per cent  and Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the PPP registering 64,362 in the percentage of 0.59. Dr Henry Herbert Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) polled 38,223 on a percentage of 0.35, Hassan Ayariga of the PNC had 24,617, representing 0.22 per cent , while Michael Abu Sakara Foster of the CPP polled 20,323 (0.18%). Jacob Osei Yeboah, an independent candidate, polled 15,201, representing 0.14 per cent and Akwasi Addai Odike of the UFP garnered 8,877, pointing to 0.08 per cent.

    Charlotte Osei takes over EC

    If the six elections held under the Fourth Republican dispensation witnessed some interesting developments, the journey to the seventh election in 2016 has seen more drama than anticipated as some political parties called for radical reforms to the electoral process and the compilation of a new voter register. They claimed the 2012 register was bloated and fraudulent with foreign names and insisted that it should be cleansed ahead of the 2016 crucial election.

    With Dr Afari-Gyan’s retirement after 24 years of dedicated service,  Mrs Charlotte Osei took over as the new EC Chair  to steer the affairs of the commission and conduct the 2016 Election.

    The Supreme Court, in its August 30, 2014 ruling, recommended to the election management body to go through a drill of reforms to address the concerns raised during the Supreme Court election petition.

    Since then, there have been diverse grounds on how to carry out the reforms with mistrust, suspicion, intolerance, accusations and counter accusation being the order of the day.

    Claims of over two million ghosts names

    Threats of demonstrations then became rife with opposition groups demanding a new voter’s register.  The contending groups alleged that foreigners, especially Togolese, had their names in the register. The court ordered the removal of the names of persons who used the National Health Insurance Authority Card (NHIA) to register as voters.

    The EC came out that it had duly complied with the Supreme Court’s ruling by removing 56,000 persons who registered with the NHIA cards.

    Mrs Osei in an attempt to enforce the political parties law ordered registered political parties to submit their audited accounts to the commission, but the two major parties failed to meet the EC’s deadline.

    Then came the reckoning time for the presidential candidates to file their nomination forms.

    After the deadline, 12 presidential aspirants who according to the EC did not meet some of the conditions spelt out on the nomination forms were disqualified, an issue which raised the political temperature.

    Following suits filed by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) at the Supreme Court to challenge its disqualification, the apex court ruled that all affected candidates should be given the chance to rectify the errors on their forms since their disqualification was an infringement on their fundamental human rights. Whilst some of them took advantage of the court’s ruling to comply with the rules of engagement, others could not make it and thus, the curtain was drawn on the impasse for the EC to proceed with the organisation of the  2016 Election with the balloting for the seven presidential candidates.

    They are the CPP, the NDP, the ruling NDC, the PPP, the NPP, the PNC and Mr  Jacob Osei Yeboah, an independent candidate.

    The EC has, therefore, managed to navigate the election management process for the election to take place tomorrow, December 7, 2016 from 7 a.m to 5pm.