Before I begin, let me just add that Ghana has just recently added a sixth TV station by the name of Viasat 1, so you will forgive me if most of the screen shots were from one TV station--Metro TV. The family spent most of the time shuttling between TV3 and Metro TV, and I have to say that Metro outshone TV3 in terms of graphics, drama, currency. Good stuff.
The pictures below offer you a glimpse of how Ghanaian TV can be. Enjoy!
On 30 December, Ghanaians sat down to their televisions, with radios in tow for good measure, to listen to Dr.Afari-Gyan of Ghana's Electoral Commission was to declare who the winner out of the 28 December run-off would be. Or was he?
Just to give you a clue: the inimitable Mary-Ann Acolatse, news editor of Metro TV, (pictured here) would facilitate extensive coverage of why Dr.Afari-Gyan was most likely not going to announce a winner. You will see from the screen capture that only 229 out of 230 constituencies had been announced; one would remain...
...and so, the Electoral Commission (EC) boss would give some kind of stay of execution by announcing on the tv networks that the constituency of Tain--a rural constituency in the Brong Ahafo region needed to vote on 2 January, 2009. It would be that vote that would definitively secure the winner of the December 2008 general elections that has been described by the Western media as a "cliff-hanger".
New Year would come...and go...
...and the winner of the Tain voting on 2 January would be declared through provisional results. The screen capture clearly shows that the party to the left of the screen (incumbent [until this afternoon at 13h00 GMT] -- National Patriotic Party (NPP)) received only 9.02% of the votes, with the now-ruling government [as of 14h00 GMT today!] of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) receiving 90.98% of the votes.Tomorrow, we get a better glimpse of Ghana's new president Professor John Evans Attah Mills.
5 comments:
Happy New Year Emmanuel. This is a wonderful vignette! I also had no idea the NPP lost 12,900 votes in Tain from the Dec. 7th to Jan. 2nd election due to the boycott. I had stopped following the elections by then.
Happy New Year sir! The elex turned out to be pretty exciting then! Are you pleased with the result? Quite like the idea of having a uni professor as my president!
I always like a nice clear outcome in an election, anything less can get rather messy!
Merry New Year! I'm hoping 2009 will be a good one for Ghana.
Abena--many thanks. Were you so disenchanted by the whole set-up?
Adam--I'm just ok with him; I am glad the NPP was kicked out--it wasn't just usual allegations of corruption, but sheer arrogance towards Ghanaians eclipsed their good deeds. Ghanaians are increasingly becoming discerning, so Mills must work hard to secure a second term!
Kris--as always, many thanks for your patronage--and your kind words! Merry New Year to you, Henry, and rest of family, too!:-D
Hi Emmanuel, I was disenchanted with the whole set-up and still have mixed feelings about the outcome. Indeed, it is true that the NPP became too complacent, out of touch but I'm far less optimistic about the NDC. This is the same party (NDC)that was booted out of office for arrogance, complacency amd losing touch with the people in 2000. I agree that President Atta-Mills is an affable, upright kind of man but the more important question is can he really handle his party's hawks (many of whom feature in the new transition team)? I'm worried less about sycophants who at least make him think he is in charge and concerned more with party functionaries who act with impunity and get the military to help them along with the process. Ironically, 2 days after the swearing in, we already got our first taste of this.
Post a Comment