From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has disclosed that one of his biggest takeaway in Ghana’s electoral process is the perseverance of Ghanaian politicians from moving from one political party to the other.
Yakubu spoke in Ghana while responding to questions from newsmen while monitoring last weekend’s presidential and parliamentary elections as an observer.
The INEC boss, who commended Ghana’s electoral process, also highlighted the ability of Ghanaian politicians to remain steadfast with one party as one of the innovations and key factors responsible for the smooth conduct of its 2024 presidential election.
Reacting to the lessons from monitoring the election, Yakubu, in a short video on the electoral umpire’s official WhatsApp platform, cited the perseverance of the politicians as his biggest takeaway.
“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 quipped.
The electoral umpire’s boss however claimed that Ghana’s approach to managing election results at the constituency level, which was inspired by Nigeria, has improved the efficiency of the electoral process.
“Previously, all parliamentary and presidential results were sent to the headquarters of the electoral commission in Accra for announcement.
“However, Ghana has adopted a decentralised system, allowing constituency-level officers to announce parliamentary results locally while only presidential results are sent to Accra.
“The second thing for me is the lesson that Ghana also learnt from Nigeria in the area of managing constituency election results. Until the last election in Ghana, all results came to the electoral commission’s headquarters in Accra; which is parliamentary and presidential.
“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.
“In Nigeria, this is what we have done and they borrowed a leave from us, and this is the second time they are implementing that. That is why, as you can see, the declaration of the presidential election result was a lot faster than it used to be in the past,” he explained.
While expressing satisfaction with the process, Yakubu noted: “We are grateful that the election has gone very well. The process and its outcome so far have been commendable, and we continue to support our colleagues in Ghana’s Electoral Commission.”