and volunteers make the last preparations for the presidential and
parliamentary election at an open-air polling station, in Accra on
December 7, 2020.
Ghanaians voted Monday in an election seen as a close
fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo and his longtime rival John
Mahama to lead a country viewed as a beacon of stability in
troubled West Africa.
Voters queued up at polling stations from the crack of dawn to
pick a president among 12 candidates and members of parliament for
275 constituencies.
As polling stations closed at 1700 GMT, raucous crowds thronged
the streets of the historic Jamestown area of the oceanside capital
Accra to celebrate another peaceful election.
Crowds cheered and chanted “four more years!” as incumbent
president Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) cast his vote
in the eastern town of Kyebi.
A November survey by the University of Ghana put Akufo-Addo
ahead with 51.7 percent of support.
“I’m feeling fine, happy that the process is going well and
peacefully,” the 76-year-old Akufo-Addo said.
Mahama, 62, of the National Democratic Congress party (NDC) was
less gushing.
“It’s too early to make an assessment, but I understand there
have been a few hitches,” Mahama said after casting his vote.
A few polling stations opened late but no major incidents were
recorded by election observers across the 38,000 polling
stations.
“We call on all our agents and all Ghanaians to stay alert. When
voting is done and counting begins, go to the polling station and
monitor the counting,” the opposition NDC’s Elvis Afriyie Ankrah
told a news conference in Accra.
The main contenders have faced each other at the ballot box
twice before. Mahama was president for four years until 2016, when
his rival succeeded him.
Key issues in this year’s vote include unemployment,
infrastructure, education and health.
– Graft allegations – “There are no jobs. I
want Mahama. The current government say they are doing this and
that but it is all talk, they have not done anything for us,” said
44-year-old Aku Brown, an unemployed mother of two.
In the poor fishing village of Chorkor, first time voter Nashua
Ahmed echoed her.
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“The economy is very bad… The government has to make it up to
us,” Brown said.
Ghana has made giant strides over the past two decades and is
the world’s second-largest cocoa-producing country, but many still
live in extreme poverty with scarce access to clean water or
electricity.
Growth in the nation of 30 million people, hit hard by the
coronavirus pandemic, is expected to fall this year to 0.9 percent
— its lowest in three decades — according to the International
Monetary Fund.
Akufo-Addo has been given high marks for his handling of the
pandemic and his record on free education and improving access to
electricity.
But he has disappointed some with his performance on tackling
graft — the key issue on which he was elected four years ago.
However Mahama has found it hard to highlight this, as he
himself left office under a cloud of corruption allegations.
Mahama has also been criticised for poor economic decisions and
racking up unsustainable debts.
– Symbolic peace pact – The relative stability
in Ghana contrasts with that of other countries in the region, with
deadly unrest this year in Guinea and Ivory Coast.
“We don’t go to places where democracy is fake, where it’s a
theatre,” EU’s chief observer Javier Nart told AFP.
In Ghana, he said, “it’s not the Kalashnikov that commands, it
is the ballot box.”
There have been seven peaceful transfers of power since Ghana
returned to democracy nearly 30 years ago.
The two major parties have consistently accepted electoral
outcomes and pursued any grievances through the courts.
To ensure its continued tradition of peaceful polls, Akufo-Addo
and Mahama on Friday signed a symbolic peace pact.
The coronavirus pandemic has posed a challenge in this year’s
election, with 10,000 more polling stations than usual set up for
the nation’s 17 million registered voters.
Hand sanitisers were made available for voters, who underwent
temperature checks before being let into polling stations.
AFP
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/12/08/ghana-holds-close-vote-as-veteran-rivals-square-off/
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has said Nigeria is not
only at war but also is in a war zone.
![image](/2020/10/lawreport.jpg")
Soyinka made this statement today against the backdrop of
large-scale insecurity in the country while launching his latest
novel, Chronicles Of The Happiest People On Earth, a book he
published at 86.
![image](/2020/10/NWLRland.jpg")
“I think we are not merely at war, we are in a war zone, ” the
literary icon maintained.
The Nobel Laureate also said there is a high level of insecurity
in the country so much so that people now sleep with one eye open
and the other closed, and cautioned that unless our leaders allow
decentralization of governance and accept that they have failed, we
might have a new set of conflagration along different lines unlike
before.
“The term, one eye open and one eye close has become a common
parlance everywhere” he said.
Asked how long it took him to write the novel, the Nobel
Laureate said it took him forever, adding that writing the book was
a problem he dealt with for many years. And he had to escape twice,
first to Senegal and then to Ghana before he could concentrate on
the book. And he actually spent about two years to write it.
“I just could not concentrate sufficiently within these
borders,” he maintained.
Asked whether he feels things have changed since independence,
the literary icon said nothing has really changed, adding that the
more things seem to be changing, the more they remain the same.
Soyinka also decried the dependence of Nigerians on religion,
adding that it reduces our humanity. He also said it is only when
Nigerians learn to reduce their total dependence on religion that
that is the only way they can habit with it. However, the Nobel
Laureate said believing in something rather than oneself enlarges
one’s humanity.
Asked again what his mood was, whether it was pessimistic or
optimistic, the Nobel Laureate succinctly said: Happiness, adding
that he takes everyday as it comes.
It was an evening of music spiced with readings of excerpts from
the book, Chronicles Of The Happiest People On Earth. Guests who
read excerpts from the book alongside the author included Somtom
Asibelibua, who read in English, French and Spanish as well as
Richard Move Damijo.
Guests in attendance included the Minister of Works and Housing,
Rotimi Amaechi, Chief, Newton Jibunoh and Professor Ebun Clark.