CODEO PRESS STATEMENT ON AKWATIA RE-RUN ELECTION OF TUESDAY AUGUST 18, 2009

Introduction
The Coalition of Domestic Observers (CODEO) is pleased to issue this statement on its observation of the recently held re-run elections in six polling stations of the Akwatia Constituency in the Eastern region.
The 2008 Parliamentary election in the Akwatia constituency was suspended in six polling stations following an outbreak of violence in which ballot boxes in these stations were tampered with by an irate gang of party supporters. This made it impossible for the Electoral Commission (EC) to declare the final parliamentary results for the Akwatia Constituency. After a lengthy court process between the EC and the two main political parti es, the Supreme Court, in July 2009, directed the EC to re-run pols in the affected polling stations in the constituency. The EC set August 18, 2009 as the date for the rerun pols.

The campaigns
Though concluded and results declared in favor of the NPP candidate the electoral process before and during election-day had been continually fraught with tension and violence. CODEO’s one week observation of the pre-election campaigns reported house-to-house campaigns by the two main candidates of the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress amidst palpable hostility between the two camps of supporters. According to CODEO observers, the crack of gun shots was frequently heard from various quarters.

Two days before election-day when the two parties had planned to hold their final rallies, supporters of the rival candidates had been locked in a bloody clash in the centre of town where their party offices are located. Government intervened by imposing a dusk to dawn curfew and deploying police and military personnel to
keep peace and order in the municipality.

Election-Day Processes
CODED deployed observers to all six polling stations. The reports complied from their checklist indicated that the Electoral Commission preparations for the polls were adequate. Polls opened promptly at 7.00am in all the polling stations and the requisite voting materials were adequately provided everywhere. EC district
officers were strategically imported from other districts to play the role of presiding officers at the polling stations for fear that local recruits might either be susceptible to compromise or risk being attacked.

Election-Day Incidents
Tight as the security was, party thugs were still able to foment trouble. A group of people were arrested bringing weapons into one of the polling stations shortly after the start of polling. Open fights broke out where rival party agents perceived infiltrations. Party polling agents intimidated polling staff into allowing unqualified persons to vote. Some highly-placed party executives were openly harassed and disallowed from visiting some of the polling stations. Noisy confrontations between rival party activists were the order of the day in all the polling stations. A number of persons were caught attempting to vote more than once or
impersonating other voters. Most prevalent was the use of fake voters’ cards. Many voters had gone to the stations with their official 10 cards to vote only to discover that other persons had fraudulently used fake IDs to vote in their names already. A couple of voters were also arrested intending to stuff the ballot boxes
with several pre-marked ballot papers. Indeed some voters succeeded in introducing a number of fake ballot papers into the ballot box in two of the polling stations.

Election-Day security
Scores of armed and unarmed security personnel were deployed at the polling stations and also in patrol teams. At each of the polling stations no less than 30 security agents took positions at various angles to protect the process. Though taunted and harassed at times, the men in uniform were firm in dealing with
disorderly behavior. They were, however, also criticized for not dealing more decisively with wrong-doers they had arrested.

Conclusion
Propped by massive security on the ground the Electoral Commission was able to administer the election up to the counting and declaration of results. However the widespread harassment, intimidation and fraud observed by COOEO makes it difficult to conclude that the Akwatia re-run election sufficiently met the criteria for free and fair elections. The Akwatia re-run elections confirm once again the unrequited need for substantial improvements to be made in national and local level election security arrangements, especially around OISEC and REGSEC, the conduct of political party officials and their supporters and civic/voter education.
The Akwatia re-run polls provides sober lessons about the length the country needs to go to ensure that the 2010 polls don’t turn nightmarish.
You may ca ll John Larvie on 776142 or 0243714444 for further clarification .
Miranda Greenstreet
Co-Chairperson

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