…It Keeps Changing Every Minute
By Margaret Jackson
December 14, 2012
The fact that some politicians have taken Ghanaians for granted in the past does not mean that Ghanaians are naïve. We are not! Therefore, no politician or political party should think that they can say anything and get away with it.
We all remember that just hours after the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan announced that John Dramani Mahama had won the 2012 Presidential election with a solid one touch victory, the NPP came out crying foul.
The NPP immediately held a press conference and told the whole world that they have clear evidence that some votes have been massaged in favour of President Mahama. They then went on to give some examples like 7,900, 9,500 and 19,000 votes being added to President Mahama’s overall tally in certain constituencies in the Eastern, Volta and the Northern Regions. The NPP vowed to provide the full list of the allegations to the EC and Ghanaians the very next day and go to court to contest the results. That was Sunday December 9, 2012.
The very next day, Monday December 10, 2012, a deputy Communications Director of the NPP, John Boadu came out boldly with a different story. He asserted that the NPP have evidence to show that in ten constituencies a total of 53,000 votes were added to that of President Mahama’s.
He, therefore, announced on Joy FM that the NPP is likely to head to the courts even though Boadu did not mention the exact constituencies involved. When Boadu made that wild allegation concerning the 53,000 votes being added to President Mahama’s, I did a simple calculation of the numbers. What I found out was that assuming 53,000 votes were backed out of President Mahama’s total votes he still wins by 50.46% margin (5,521,761) as against Akufo-Addo’s of 47.97% (5,248,898). Again, I did another calculation and assumed that even if the supposed 53,000 votes were added to Akufo-Addo’s total votes, John Mahama still gets 50.22% (5,521,761) whilst Akufo-Addo still goes down with 48.22% (5,301,898).
The NPP’s tricks were on full display on Tuesday December 11, 2012. At their so-called rally, thousands of their disgruntled supporters hit the streets at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra in protest over what they say is widespread fraud in the polls. In an address to the supporters the NPP leadership came out with different numbers. This time around, they asserted that the EC gave President Mahama more than 100,000 votes; therefore, they will contest the results in court as long as it takes.
But something funny happened on Friday December 14, 2012 when Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, NPPs General Secretary, who eats, swims, drinks, inhales and dabbles in sheer lies, came out yet another figures. According to Owusu Afriyie, the EC rigged the election in excess of one million votes for John Mahama. Haba, when will these numbers stay the same?
From the way the NPPs electoral numbers keep changing everyday most Ghanaians will never be surprised if we wake up the next day and hear from the NPP quarters that all the 5,574,761 (50.70%) votes which President Mahama garnered were all stolen from Akufo-Addo.
We need a break from these NPP folks. They keep throwing out numbers thinking nobody will keep track of them. Who are they deceiving and who do they think we are? Clearly they have run out of excuses. They know that they have lost the elections but are having difficulty in accepting the verdict and the will of Ghanaians.
The rumour currently being circulated by the NPP folks is that the Supreme Court is going to overturn the results before January 7 and crown Akufo-Addo as the president-elect. Some wishful thinking!
Do the NPP folks believe that assuming if the results were overturned in their favour, the NDC supporters will sit by as mummies or dummies and just let it go? It never gonna happen so they better move on and accept the fact that they lost the elections.
Just changing figures at every turn of event will not cut it. It is rather making the NPP look very pathetic. It is a party which never accepts any electoral results if it does not go their way. We have a pattern here and this attitude by the NPP will move voters away from their camp.
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