Ghana’s election was peaceful, declares EU

The European Union has described the just ended presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana as “very peaceful but with minor incidents”.

Addressing journalists in Accra, Chief Observer of the European Union’s Election Observation Mission, Javier Nart, said the minor incidents should not be exaggerated.

“The electoral process begins ahead of the elections, that is why we came here in October, we can only propose what could be better in the next elections,” he added.

The mission also commended the Electoral Commission for putting in place measures for the observance of the COVID-19 protocols.

“This protocol was largely respected but of course there were places where they were relaxed, but overall we commend the Electoral Commission for putting in place measures to observe the COVID-19 protocols.”

Process

The Union described the entire process after voting as smooth and peaceful.

“Voting on election day was well managed. Voters were able to freely express their will, party agents were present in almost all polling stations and integrity measures for the identification of voters were respected. However, the secrecy of the vote was not always ensured, mainly due to poor layout of polling stations,” Nart said.

He added: “Counting was transparent although procedures were frequently not followed, and party agents received signed copies of the result forms. Collation was less well organized but key transparency measures were adhered to. Domestic observers contributed to the transparency and credibility of the process.”

Deployment

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Ghana on Tuesday (17 November 2020) deployed 40 long-term observers (LTOs) across the country in the lead-up to the elections.

The observers were deployed across all of Ghana’s 16 regions to focus on both rural and urban areas.

The EU said it deployed a larger contingent in 2020 as compared to 2016 due to the additional creation of regions in Ghana.

Fred Dzakpata

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