Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), professor Yakubu Mahmood who alongside with Yiaga Africa and other Africa leaders were in Ghana to monitor the country’s December 7th general elections, has attributed the credible outcome of the elections to the political behavior of Ghanian politicians.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu in a short video, argued that unlike Nigerian politicians, Ghanian politicians do not move from one party to another. According to him, the loyalty of the Ghanian politicians to their parties results in political stability in Ghana as well as stability of voters’ loyalty to political parties.
The INEC chairman made reference to the undying spirit of the outgoing Ghanian president, Nana Akufo-Addo who before his electoral victory had contested many times under a single political party.
In his words: ” Rarely in Ghana do you see people moving from one party to another with every general election. So, that is important.
“It provides stability. It also provides their supporters with stability. So, there are people who have supported political parties for many years. So, whether the party is in power or opposition, they stick to the political party”.
He also added that the Ghanian electoral umpire restructuring their elections results collation and transmission contributed to the smooth conduct of the general elections.
Professor Mahmood claims that the Ghanian electoral umpire adopted Nigeria’s system of result collation and transmission by collating regional and parliamentary election results at the regional level while only the presidential election results were transmitted and collated at the centre, Accra.
“Although Ghana is not a federal system, they learnt from Nigeria where you have returning officers who announce results for parliamentary elections in the various constituencies around the country. Only the presidential election results come to Accra”.