We have entered the Osu Curve

To: okyeame@googlegroups.com

0854hrs Saturday January 3, 2009

The last bend on the Race Course looms ahead of us


This day, would also mark yet another watershed in this nail-biting marathon of an election. Tain, the 230th constituency) has been held. NDC got almost 90% of the valid votes cast. the turnout was less than 50% of the 53000 registered voter list. To win, NPP needed 23,055 PLUS 50% PLUS 1 of the remaining valid votes cast in the Tain ballot. The EC had earlier declared that he had certified 229 out of 230. Both NDC and (now) NPP have presented information to the EC as their evidence of some irregularities on Dec 28th in Ashanti and Volta Region respectively.

In the meantime, NPP has confirmed that they have withdrawn their legal suits and trust that the EC would look at the evidence they have provided. NPP has also stated that they expect the EC to look at both their claims and those of the NDC equally and take both issues into consideration before he makes any announcements. Likewise, NDC.

The EC, it has been said, intends to make an announcement at 1100hrs or thereabouts today on the election, and more than certainly, on the winner. or would he tell Ghanaians that for x and y reason, I have decided as follows.. bla bla bla......Dr Afari-Djan and his team of commissioners have always in all the elections held in Ghana since long, always pulled a super card at interpreting the electoral laws.. not bad for a person(s) who live that law all the time and for all these years!!

So at this stage, the big ticket question is how long will it take the EC to investigate the claims of the two parties?, would the claims impact on the numbers declared by the EC on the 30th of December? Did the EC declare or did he provisionally give the figures for the 229 constituencies? If the EC does not finish its work before 10:00am on January 7th, would the new Speaker be the one to take over? would the EC announce his final results today or tomorrow and let the parties sort themselves out in court afterwards?

Looking forward to 7th January, would there be a consensus or would there be difficulty appointing/electing the Speaker for the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic given the numbers in the House.. ? Have the two parties set aside a backroom team insulated from the presidential elections to haggle out the issues relating to the election of the leadership of the new House - the Speaker, 1st & 2nd Deputy Speakers, Chairpersons of the various select committees?. Are they also working on which MP will sit where in the new House?
It is very easy for us to forget that in the melee of presidential action, parliament is working and the new one will be expected to begin registration on Monday January 5 so they can be seated on Wednesday January 7, 2009

In the meantime, I believe President Kufuor will deliver his valedictory Address to the House on Tuesday January 6th to the outgoing Parliament. This would probably be one of the tear-popping moments of this political era, where many stalwarts will appear for the last time before the House sitting on one side of the House.

The few MPs who will return from NPP will have to shift to the minority side, and the retained ones from NDC will shift to the majority side. Many many experienced NPP MPs either did not contest, or lost their seats either at their party primaries or during the Dec 7th polls. Likewise, many new (some of them strong) faces will also add a puff of fresh breath into Parliament on both sides of the political divide.

Another day of interest, this shall be!!

Bla Elik