GHANA ELECTIONS: AT LONG LAST, A WINNER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ACCRA 000006

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/W

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/05/2019
TAGS: GH KDEM PGOV PHUM PINS PREL
SUBJECT: GHANA ELECTIONS: AT LONG LAST, A WINNER

REF: A. ACCRA 1617

B. ACCRA 1624

Classified By: POLCHIEF GPERGL FOR REASONS 1.4 b&d


1. (C) SUMMARY. Ghana's marathon presidential elections,
which had begun on December 7, finally drew to a close on
January 3 when the director of the Electoral Commission (EC)
pronounced the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)
party's John Evans Atta-Mills President-elect of the Republic
of Ghana. Later that day, Atta-Mills' opponent, Nana
Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP),
acknowledged the EC's decision and congratulated his
opponent, but he stopped short of an actual concession.
Although Akufo-Addo tried and failed to block the EC from
proclaiming a winner, NPP party faithful and the 4,480,446
voters (49.77%) who voted for Akufo-Addo appear to have
quietly accepted their party's narrow loss without threat of
violence or reprisal. NDC supporters demonstrated their joy
enthusiastically but appropriately on the streets of cities
and towns across Ghana. The EC's declaration of results took
place less than 24 hours after voting ended in the Tain
constituency in western Brong-Ahafo, which for technical
reasons had not voted in the December 28 runoff election.
The U.S. Mission sent 10 employees, including Poloffs and
Political Assistant (PA),to the Tain constituency to
observe the election. The NPP, pursuing every conceivable
course of action to stall, even after the EC's December 30
announcement of initial results (reftel) made it clear that
the NDC would win, at the last moment decided to boycott
Tain. This led to confusion among its supporters and even
with President Kufuor, who had twice gone public with clear
and conciliatory messages (as urged by A/S Frazer) counseling
all parties to accept the results as declared by the EC.
While the NPP may still file court challenges as allowed by
law, the inauguration of President-elect Mills will take
place on January 7, as constitutionally mandated. END SUMMARY

ON THE ROAD TO TAIN: NOTES ON THE FINAL LAP


2. (C) U.S. Mission observers departed Accra January 1 at 7
a.m. for the seven-hour journey to Tain. After hearing
rumors that the Tain election might be called off, we called
Deputy Electoral Commissioner Sarfo Kantanka at 9:00 to get a
readout. He assured us that the EC planned to conduct the
election as scheduled, and that he himself was coming to
Tain. At 10 a.m., we received word that the NPP planned to
file a writ in the Fast Track High Court to stop the Tain
election and prevent the EC from announcing a winner on
January 3, the day after the Tain elections. About an hour
later, Radio Joy FM broadcast a bulletin that the NPP,
represented by its chairman Peter MacManu and lead counsel
Atta Akyea, were in the high court chambers of Justice Edward
Asante presenting an exparte motion to restrain the EC from
declaring final results. NDC lawyers, appearing in chambers
as friends of the court, objected to the exparte motion, and
citing Public Holiday Act 601, declared it unlawful for the
court to be sitting on a legal holiday. Shortly after lunch,
an NDC contact who was in the courtroom reported to Poloffs
that following heated exchanges between NPP and NDC lawyers,
Justice Asante had refused the exparte writ (although he
brushed off the NDC assertion that he could not legally work
on a public holiday),and had told the plaintiffs that they
had to serve the writs on EC Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and
NDC candidate Mills if they wanted a hearing to take place on
Monday, January 5.


3. (C) On the road between Kumasi and the Brong-Ahafo
regional capital of Sunyani, our observer teams saw a
motorcade approaching at high speed and realized that it was
President Kufuor, returning to Accra. This was surprising,
because media had reported that Akufo-Addo would be
campaigning in Tain and that Kufuor would be addressing a
large rally late that afternoon. When we arrived in Sunyani
at 4 p.m., Poloff and PA proceeded directly to the regional
Electoral Commission office, where ballot boxes for all 144
polling stations in Tain were being prepared under the
watchful eyes of a large contingent of police and military,
and set to load on trucks for distribution throughout the
constituency. One of the EC's seven commissioners, Nana
Eyiba, had come to oversee the process, and she expressed her
concern to us that no NPP party agents were present (at least
six NDC agents were verifying the process). She said they
had waited as long as they could, but had to begin loading
the trucks at 5 p.m. When we asked when she expected Deputy
EC Chairman Kantanka to arrive, she took us aside and said
that he would not be coming. Other than her, the entire EC
board, including the Chairman, had gone "on a retreat" where
they could not be reached. They had even left their cell
phones behind, she said. (NOTE: Although she did not say it

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outright, it was clear that EC members had gone into hiding
to avoid being served with the NPP writ. We tried Kantanka's
cell phone, and it was turned off. END NOTE) Eyiba also made
it clear that she was worried about being the only EC
commissioner in Tain, and after reporting back to Ambassador,
Poloff assured her that she could call us if she sensed any
danger.


4. (C) On our way back to the hotel at dusk, we noticed
activity at the tiny Sunyani airport and went to investigate.
We were told that a chartered City-Link airplane was about
to land. Expecting a contingent of election observers, we
watched the plane land and were surprised when no passengers
disembarked. A few minutes later, Alex Osei-Wusu,
Akufo-Addo's clerk in his law office, arrived at the airport
with three other NPP officials. He spoke with us for a few
moments, and when we asked why the NPP was not present at the
regional EC office to oversee disbursement of ballot boxes,
he said that the NPP was probably not going to deploy party
agents at the Tain polling stations, and then boarded the
chartered aircraft. (NOTE: City Link is a commercial airline
that plies (infrequently) between Accra and Kumasi, Tamale,
and Sunyani. The four NPP party members boarded an airplane
that can hold 30 passengers, and which had obviously been
sent empty just to bring them back to Accra, needless to say
at considerable expense. END NOTE)


5. (C) Back at the hotel at dinner, Political Assistant was
approached by Dan Botwe (Protect),a former General Secretary
of the NPP and a close confidante of Akufo-Addo. PA later
brought Botwe to the table where Poloff and British High
Commission Poloff Rosie Tapper were seated. Botwe confirmed
that the NPP would not have polling agents at any polling
station in Tain, and hinted that the elections would not be
carried out and that legal action was still in the offing.
When questioned by Poloff and Tapper about these tactics, and
taken to task for his party's intransigence, Botwe hewed the
party line, insisting that there should be no elections in
Tain until the NPP's allegations of intimidation and
brutalization of party agents in the Volta Region had been
resolved. He added that beyond that, security conditions in
Tain were too dangerous to allow the elections to be held.
Later, after Botwe had departed, PA told Poloff that Botwe,
while unwilling to speak candidly in front of diplomats, had
confided in him that the NPP was planning to boycott the Tain
elections. He said that the NPP's executive committee had
met earlier and were urging Akufo-Addo to throw in the towel,
but Akufo-Addo and a few cohorts remained unyielding,
convinced that the Volta irregularities might still produce
an NPP victory. He said the party was in disarray, and that
others, including President Kufuor, were pushing for
acceptance of the EC's decision following the Tain vote. He
also told PA that he was in attendance when Kufuor had met
Akufo-Addo earlier that afternoon in Wenchi, just outside the
Tain constituency. When advised that the NPP planned to
boycott the Tain elections, Kufuor went ballistic, angered
that he had traveled all the way to Tain to campaign only to
find that Akufo-Addo had decided to opt out. Thus the
explanation of the Kufuor motorcade speeding back to Accra as
Mission observers approached Sunyani.


6. (C) On election day in Tain, mission observers visited at
least 75% of polling stations. NPP agents were absent at all
polling places, and a heavy security force presence assured a
calm and peaceful day of voting. The previous day, NDC
candidate Atta-Mills, his running mate John Mahama, and
former president Jerry Rawlings were all out on the hustings.
By election day, they had all left Tain, but a heavy NDC
presence remained on the ground. On our observer rounds, we
bumped into former Rawlings finance minister Kwame Peprah,
MPs Baba Jamal and Atto Kwashie, Doe Adjaho, the deputy
minority leader in Parliament, and Kwabena Adjei, the NDC
chairman. All were in high spirits, certain of the
election's outcome, but still wary of potential NPP court
actions. Adjei, who told us that the NPP had nothing to
fear from a Mills administration, which would be conciliatory
and would pursue no vengeful actions, then went on to
heatedly describe a litany of NPP transgressions, leaving one
to wonder.


7. (U) Not surprisingly, at the end of the day, the NDC
received 19,566 votes in Tain, and the NPP just 2,035. The
next morning, right on schedule at 11 a.m., EC director
Afari-Gyan proclaimed the Tain results, confirmed previously
announced results from the other 229 constituencies, and said
that in regard to complaints by both parties concerning
voting in each others strongholds, the EC had not found
evidence sufficient to invalidate results. He then
pronounced John Evans Atta-Mills President-elect of the
Republic of Ghana.

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8. (C) Five hours after the EC's announcement, Akufo-Addo
told a quickly assembled press conference that "I acknowledge
the Electoral Commission's declaration and congratulate Prof.
Mills." He went on to say, not exactly accurately, that half
of the voting population in the country voted for him and his
program, while another half voted for Prof. Mills and his
program. He continued his campaign aimed at casting doubt
over results from the Volta Region, flying in the face of
reports by the EC and international and domestic observers
that the vote there, as elsewhere, was free, fair, and
credible. He accused the EC of giving "the unfortunate
impression that it does not matter how votes are obtained as
long as they are duly recorded. The use of violence for
electoral advantage is unacceptable... Our democracy will not
be complete until the day when Ghanaians regardless of their
party affiliation or region of origin can participate fully
in our election as voters or polling agents everywhere."



9. (C) COMMENT: Akufo-Addo's non-concession came well after
most of his party and the Ghanaian public at large had grown
weary of waiting and offended by the stalling. Several media
commentators characterized it as too little, too late. As it
has played out, Akufo-Addo has done his reputation no favor
by his delaying tactics, court filings, non-particiapation in
Tain, and finally his passive-aggressive congratulations to
Atta-Mills. In contrast, the President-elect has been
pitch-perfect in his statements, pledging to be President for
the whole of Ghana, promising a presidency devoid of
discrimination, and dismissing fears of a witch-hunt by some
political opponents. The embassy has learned, however, that
Akufo-Addo's behavior has rankled, and Atta-Mills told
supporters that he would refuse to meet his opponent absent a
true concession speech. President Kufuor's actions have also
been praiseworthy throughout the final stages of the
election, as he urged respect for the EC's decision and
congratulated Atta-Mills on his victory. His statements, at
the urging of AF A/S Frazer, helped at a critical moment. At
the same time, his congratulations were pointed. "You must
appreciate the arduous and exacting demands on your
competitors, all of whom were no doubt motivated by the
desire to serve their nation and are therefore honorable men.
The 4th Republic has moved apace with respect for human
rights, democratic governance and the rule of law. My prayer
is that you would be guided by these lofty principles."
TEITELBAUM