2016 elections went reasonably well – Afari Gyan

Former Chair of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan has spoken about the 2016 elections for the first time since the exercise was conducted on December 7, 2016.

The exercise was the first to be held in the Fourth Republic without his supervision.

Speaking on the sidelines of a STAR-Ghana-organised event on Wednesday, March 15 to review the 2016 elections, Dr Afari Gyan did not mince words about the success of last year’s general elections. “I think the elections went reasonably well,” he stated, “I thought they would go reasonably well.”

The elections were the first to be supervised by Dr Afari Gyan’s successor, Charlotte Osei.

Transposition errors

Aside numerous legal tussles between the EC and some political parties, whose presidential candidates were initially disqualified prior to the exercise, results were said to have been delayed. The delay is said to have influenced the calling of results by the two major political parties, ahead of the official one by the Commission.

But Dr Afari Gyan jumped to the defence of his successor, saying: “When elections have been done, it takes time to compile results and results must be compiled very, very carefully.”

He told TV3’s Komla Klutse about events in The Gambia, where Former President Yahya Jammeh retracted an initial concession to demand a recount of votes. Dr Afari Gyan, who chaired the Commission for over two decades, said the issue in The Gambia had to do with transposition errors.

“This tells you that it is important to allow the Electoral Commission to go over the election results again, again and again. “We shouldn’t rush the Commission to declare election results. We should allow them to do a checking and rechecking.”