NPP Floors NDC Again!
…After ‘Table-Top’ Results Collation At Kumawu
For three consecutive times, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has floored the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) by proving that the elephant is superior and more advanced, when it comes to the efficient and timely collation of election results.
From 2016 till date, the NPP has deployed the best electoral machines, materials and ICT infrastructure for every election, including by-elections, compared to their counterparts in the NDC.
Such was the case in the just-ended by-election at Kumawu in the Ashanti Region that saw the governing party retaining the seat with its candidate Ernest Yaw Anim.
The Anchor’s information is that the NPP was the first to complete its collation of results from the various polling station centres, when the rival NDC was struggling to get pink-sheets from their polling agents.
Insiders told this paper, just as the NPP did in the 2016 and 2020 elections, they deployed the same software to Kumawu and smartly and accurately projected the final results, even before the Electoral Commission (EC) came out.
By 6pm last Tuesday, images of a large screen displaying details of the projected result were trending on the internet. But the story was totally different when it came to the NDC.
This has left some activists of the NDC very disappointed, with some of them taking to social media to make a mockery of their party’s archaic system of collating election results and the continuous display of incompetence.
An activist of the NDC with the pseudonym on Facebook, Prissy Ekua Adiepena Hemans, who was so impressed with the NPP’s work, shared her party’s roundtable photograph, likening it to the time Jesus and his disciples had the Last Supper.
She wrote, “From the NPP. As an NDC member be there and be talking about patience and don’t push for the right thing to be done. We shall all smell pepper.
“Our executives and party folks are working tirelessly to see us back to power and the people in-charge must protect our votes by doing the right thing. As an NDC member, are u not pleased with the NPP’s system?”
According to her, “As early as 6pm I saw the NPP’s collated results circulating n u pipo are now showing us pictures of u seated around a round table like Jesus n his Disciples having the last supper? My eyes die o. Is this not the opportunity to test our IT system if there is any?”
Recall how in the 2016 and 2020 elections, the NDC allegedly could not collate its result, a situation which was confirmed by Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the former general secretary, who is now the national chairman of the party.
Even though the party went to court over the last election result, it could not tell what its own collated result was when the Supreme Court asked them, but their counterpart did theirs with finesse.
The closest the Johnson Asiedu Nketiah-led NDC came in the latest by-election was rather a roundtable of its leadership, including the Ashanti Regional executives, armed with A-4 sheets and laptops, frantically collating the results manually.
For an election where many of the party bigwigs, including the flagbearer John Mahama, stormed the constituency to canvass for votes for the candidate, and where the likes of the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, served as a polling agent and popular actor John Dumelo served as an observer for the NDC, many had expected a better deployment of equipment and technology.
NPP’s Collation system
While their counterparts in the NPP were using the best technology available, the party appeared to be collating their results manually, a development that has sent shivers down the spines of their supporters.
Present on the NDC roundtable were eight individuals, including the Ashanti Regional chairman, Nana Akwasi Andrews, who was once indicted in a 2020 general election committee report as not capable of handling election-related issues and the regional secretary, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, among others.
Till date, nothing close to what the NPP showcased has been shown by the NDC, unlike the governing party whose projected figure was pegged at 15,264 representing 70.91 percent, while the NDC, per their projection, had 3,723 representing 17.29 percent.
The two independent candidates, Kwaku Duah (1) 2,478 and Kwaku Duah (2) 62 representing 0.29 percent respectively. Their result was not different from what the EC certified as the final result.
It was the same strategy the NPP deployed in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, which saw them winning the day.
Many disturbed NDC supporters have since taken to social media to lament and pour scorn on the leadership for attaching not so seriousness to election-related issues, even after losing out in two major elections.
Others even recommended that the NDC eats humble pie and get close to the NPP and inquire from them the software they are using so they can acquire one going forward to save themselves from this shame.
Aside from expressing fear ahead of the 2024 general elections, they say the message for the party to get serious needs to be drummed home when there is another by-election in the offing in the Assin North constituency in the Central Region, which the NDC won in the 2020 election.
Already, the NPP has since left Kumawu and moved to the Assin North constituency, starting work to ensure that they snatch back to support their side in the current hung Parliament. They have started the construction of new roads and about to commission a beautiful astro turf.
The NDC supporters are disturbed about the lack of resources and ICT infrastructure, while the NPP appears to be working so hard for the next election where, they say, they will be “breaking the 8.”
They are very worried their party may, after all the talking and promises, will lose out in 2024, and the NPP, which so far appears to be leaving no stone unturned, will outperform them and live its dream of handing over power to itself.
Meanwhile, analyzing the outcome of the Kumawu by-election, the managing editor of “The Insight” newspaper, Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., lauded the NPP for strategically working to thwart the votes of the first Independent candidate, Kwaku Duah.
According to the veteran journalist, who spoke on Metro Television’s “Good Morning Ghana” programme, the governing party, it looked to him, knew what they were about when they fielded another independent candidate, bearing the same name as the first one, just to confuse voters and also take part of the votes which otherwise should have gone to the first Duah.
He told the host of the programme, Dr. Randy Abbey, that the strategy worked perfectly and it showed the party understood what was at stake.
Source: Anchorghana.com
