Season's greetings from @penplusbytes

 

 

A Social Media Tracking Centre (STMC) that will monitor the use of social media during Ghana's 2012 elections has been set up.

 

The centre will provide a real time response mechanism on election irregularities, violence and other concerns by reaching out to key election stakeholders for immediate action.

The aim is to monitor all social media platforms during the elections to afford civil society, state authorities and development partners the opportunity to know in real time public opinions, sentiments and attitudes relayed through different social media platforms in order for relevant actions to be taken.

The African Election Project, in collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) and EnoughisEnough (EiE) with support from the United Kindom's Department for International Development (DFID) is Social Media Tracking Centre (STMC).

According to Mr. Michael Ohene-Effah, Governance Advisor at DFID, "Ghana DFID welcomes and supports this ground-breaking social media tracking centre initiative.

Although there are several media monitoring activities in the mainstream media surrounding Ghana's 2012 elections, there is currently only a handful and often inefficient manual tracking of elections trends taking place in the growing social media environment.

Social Media Tracking Centre (SMTC), comes at an opportune time, since there is ample evidence pointing to lack of efficient social media monitoring capability among key actors covering Ghana's 2012 elections.

Mr Jerry Sam, Project Manager of African Elections Project, explained that the real-time data capturing ability of the SMTC will allow for up-to-the moment incidents taking place in different areas around the country, to be collated, analysed and transmitted as alerts and to relevant elections stakeholders such  as the  National Elections Security Task Force (NESTF),  civil society actors, the media and Electoral Commission, among others for necessary action to be taken.

He said it was expected that monitoring social media powered by SMTC will provide valuable feedback and focus on how alerts coming out of the SMTC will serve as early warning mechanism thereby contributing significant  reduction of electoral violence while at the same time ensuring transparent and free elections.

Mr Sam said the African Elections Project was established in 2008, with the vision of enhancing the ability of journalists, citizen journalists and the news media to provide more timely and relevant election information and knowledge while undertaking monitoring of specific and important aspects of governance.

http://graphic.com.gh/Politics/centre-to-monitor-2012-elections-on-social-media.html

Ghana Elections 2012 : The C-Section of Mama Ghana and the ECs PR department

 

Just look at her! She is so gorgeous, Mama Ghana, that is! When she lays down to rest, she looks like a cat, asleep in foetal position. She doesn't look like a Mama that can hurt a fly! But in standing position, Mama Ghana looks stocky and robust as if she is about to squat. I urge you to spend some time to look closely at the map of Ghana. She looks really fascinating.

Ghana is shaped like someone who is spotting a little pot-belly from eating a combination of lots of fufu, garri, akple, banku. Or, she may just be pregnant with deep thoughts and unfulfilled dreams. Someday, Ghana will rise, stretching out its thickset body. Even now, she is the Black Star that shines! Wait till the day when she truly rises and stretches out her stout body mass.

But since last week Friday when voting began, we have heard the throbbingheartbeats of Mama Ghana. She is huffing and puffing. Clearly, this must be labour pains. Oh, she is having a caesarean section! Her doctor just cut through her protruding belly! See, a baby has been yanked out of her but the doctor has not done a good job with cleaning up after delivery. Hmm, it seems like she was all along pregnant with twins but the doctor, although has several years of experience, didn't feel the twins! So when the first baby arrived, the doctor gave him the usual bottom spanking; the baby shrieked, and viola, he was welcomed into the world.

Now, unfortunately, Mama Ghana seems to be experiencing some internal bleeding.The second yet unborn baby is breached! The doctor is trying to walk away from this sticky situation because the second baby is not coming out the normal way with head first, followed by the remainder of the body. Instead, it has one leg sticking out, struggling to pop out. The delivery has become more complicated than we can fathom. This is not good. It is unnatural to leave a baby unborn; it is deadly for mother and child! So the second baby cannot be left to die a pre-mature death inside Mama Ghana. So what is the doctor going to do about it? We have to wait and see. But why on earth didn't the doctor foresee a second baby despite the gargantuan pregnancy?

On a personal side, I can relate with Mama Ghana's experiences over labour complications, breech, C-Sections and the accompanying gargantuan unprecedented drama. Complicationsduring childbirth are not like a walk in the park. If such complications are not handled well, a death or deaths occur!

Of course baby number one is President John Mahama. Baby number two is Nana Akuffo-Addo. The doctor of course is Dr Afari-Gyan. Mahama has been delivered smoothly and the doctor thinks his work is done. But, not so fast! Ghana must resolve the Nana question. Whatever legal cases the NPP seeks to pursue should be done quickly so this heavy election cloud will be lifted off to enable ordinary Ghanaians to move on to the real issues: water, food, toilet, roads, housing and the likes.

The National Peace Council has been playing the role of the awkward mid-wife who hovers around the doctor trying to assist in ensuring a safe delivery. The Council has so far acted as a sage in the pre-election drama. But it must now watch the way it handles itself to avoid a

situation in which it loses credibility to remain the sage who can save Ghana out of this brewing post-election funk.

Where are all the elders of this town to take care of Mama Ghana with real tender loving care?

Love must ooze out of the elders. They must all put their heads together. Nothing must be left to chance. We must save Mama Ghana, the two babies and all their loved ones.

Unfortunately, there was a certain crude and unacceptable Third-Worldishness about this year's elections. It was as if the EC had never seen technology before so handled things as if it was strolling casually to a cocoyam farm. Even cocoyams would have been treated better than the EC treated Ghana. The lateness of the EC officials to several polling stations was not just

unacceptable but was disrespectful of the thousands of Ghanaians some of whom had congregated as early as dawn to cast their votes – old and young and even the very pregnant.

And, those annoying little machines had the audacity to reject anyone it felt like rejecting, without the decency to provide an explanation of some sort. The little monsters of verification

machines discriminated between families – it chose a husband but rudely rejected a wife while it verified a suckling minor who shouldn't have been registered as a voter in the first place. So a one day smooth election turned into a two-day voting torture. With that, the seed was sown for confusion laced with deception that disregards transparency.

Overhaul EC's PR Department:

Enters the Public Relations (PR) Department of the EC! In the 2008 elections, the PR Department was a big disappointment and performed below average. Strangely, the department

handles its work during elections in a business-as-usual manner although it is by now clear to us all that our elections fall within the realm of business-unusual. Our elections should be

exercises in crisis management. We must therefore operate from a posture of Murphy's Law – All that can go wrong, will – and not leave anything to chance.

It does not appear that rumour management is part of the ECs communication plan. In both 2008 and 2012, when rumours spilled over, the PR folks let them be, forgetting that factual

information is both a balm and a slayer of rumours. Last Saturday, when news broke of suspicions that STL might be doing something untoward at Dzorwulu that was casting doubts

over the credibility of the elections, the ECs PR people stayed mute much of the day, instead of responding promptly with explanations. They ignored Ghana just as they did in 2008.

It is troubling that part of the reason our country got on the brink of a melt-down in 2008 was due to poor communication planning and implementation. No communication in itself

communicates a great deal. The absence of communication can confuse, confirm suspicions and reinforce fears.

Long before Election 2016, the Electoral Commission must overhaul its PR outfit. Ghana should not continue to risk its life and survival to the inactivity of a lousy department whose

responsibility it is to communicate to the citizenry at critical moments during elections. To put it softly and gently, the PR Department of the EC is constipated.

A few enduring questions: Is the EC'sPR department technically and professionally well-equipped, as well as mentally well-suited and prepared to offer healthy communication to Ghana during general elections? No! The evidence does not suggest that.Why in the world has the head of the PR department worked in an acting capacity for such a long time? What is his level of expertise in the PR/Communication discipline? Would the EC place a non-IT person to head its IT department? There are more questions than answers.

Doris Dartey 

President Mahama wins Ghana Elections 2012

President John Dramani Mahama is the winner of the 2012 presidential election.

   The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan announced on Sunday night that he polled 5,574,761 votes (50.70%) while his closest contestant Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic (NPP) polled 5,248,898 votes (47.74%).

    The other results were:

    Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster of the Convention People's Party (CPP) - 20,323 (0.18%) 

Mr Hassan Ayariga of the People's National Convention (PNC) - 24,617 (0.22%)

Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) - 64,362 (0.59%)

Dr Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) - 38,223 (0.35%)

 Mr Joseph Osei-Yeboah (Independent) - 15,201 (0.14%)

Mr Akwasi Addai of the United Front Party (UFP) - 8,877 (0.08%).

The percentage turn out was 79.43

Total Registered voters were 14,158,890

Total votes cast were 11,246,982

Total Valid Votes -10,995,262

Total Rejected votes -251,720

Total constituencies – 275

GNA

Ghana Elections 2012 Final Electoral Commission of Ghana Results sheet

 

Ghana Elections 2012 : The tweet that say it all

 

Ghana Elections 2012 – the story so far

Here are a few things we know about Ghana's 2012 elections.

It's going to be close. With 168 of 275 constituencies reporting, incumbent John Mahama has 49.83% of the vote and his chief rival Nana Akufo-Addo has 48.68% of votes. That's lots closer than polls, which predicted a victory for Mahama, had been suggesting. Given that the third party candidates have less than 2% of the votes, a run-off seems possible, if both Mahama and Akufo-Addo remain below the 50% mark.

It wasn't perfect. This was Ghana's first election with a new biometric voter identification system. A massive registration drive issued voter ID cards that include information on the bearer's thumbprint. Voters present their card, verify their thumbprints and are then able to vote. This system malfunctioned in some locations, leading to long lines and hot tempers, and the electoral commission extended voting into today to ensure everyone can exercise their franchise.

 

People who do hard work with their hands will have some problems with the machine..EC must act now.. #GhanaDecides

December 7, 2012 11:01 am via UberSocial MobileReplyRetweetFavorite

@Twin_Senyo

Edward Senyo

One of the reports I read yesterday on Twitter suggested that some of the people having bad problems were people who work with their hands, suggesting that scars or blisters might be interfering with the scanner. An article today offered advice on cleaning hands using Coke or akpeteshie (locally distilled sugar-cane or palm wine liquor) to create more readable prints.

Ghana invested heavily in biometric systems because there's understandable concern about voter fraud. The 2008 election was settled by less than 40,000 votes and there was widespread concern that voters were sneaking across the border from Togo to vote, or voting multiple times. Stories like this one, in which biometric machines are revealing multiple attempts to vote, are getting good play in Ghanaian social media. (Great article, from the headline that implies a Robocop-style machine arresting the miscreant to descriptions of the gentleman's alacrity in eluding authorities. :-) Given successes like this one, it's likely that biometric voting will continue, with some fine tuning, in subsequent elections.

It was pretty damned impressive. Ghana has had a series of increasingly credible elections, starting in 1992, and capturing international interest in 2000, when a free and fair election ousted the party of former dictator (and later democratically elected leader), Jerry Rawlings. 2000, you may remember, was the year of endless Bush v. Gore drama in the US, and my friend Koby Koomson, then Ghana's ambassador to the US, sent me a copy of the letter he'd sent to President Clinton, offering Ghana's assistance to the US in election monitoring.

There's a wealth of articles that celebrate Ghana's successful democracy, including helpful insights from economist George Ayittey, who attributes democratic success to a strong and independent media, a vibrant set of NGOs, and maturity on the part of the nation's politicians, who notes that the 2008 election could easily have turned chaotic, had not Akufo-Addo graciously conceded.

What's interesting for me, as a passionate Ghanaphile, but an outsider to the political process, is that watching Ghana's elections is a helpful tutorial in global good electoral practices.

The video above, from the Ghana Decides project, shows the vote counting process in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Accra, the historically Muslim neighborhood of Nima. The transparent boxes, the public sorting of ballots and the crowd watching the process are all parts of an intricate system that helps remove uncertainty from the results.

So are images like this one: the results from a specific polling place, publicly posted. In Zimbabwe's last presidential election, posting these votes allowed the opposition ZANU-PF to conduct a parallel vote tabulation and contest MDC's assertions that they had won outright. Parallel tabulation efforts are underway in Ghana, as well, with multiple monitoring, civil society and media organizations trying to ensure that the electoral commission's results are in line with the reports at tens of thousands of polling places.

I'l be very interested to learn what my friends Mike Best at Tom Smyth at Georgia Tech and the team at PenPlusBytes learn from their experiments in social media monitoring. (Disclosure: I'm on the board of PenPlusBytes, and am advising Tom's on his dissertation.) They've been aggregating tens of thousands of reports via Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and following up on reports of violence or conflict. By monitoring Ghana's peaceful elections, they hope to establish best practices for using their tools in monitoring more contentious ones, hoping to defuse violence before it unfolds.

I'll offer two disappointments in Ghana's elections. One is that Ghana continues moving towards being a purely two-party state. One of the benefits of a two-round electoral system (which forces a run-off if no one receives 50% + 1 vote in the first round) is that it encourages people to vote for smaller parties to express preferences, knowing they can vote strategically in a second round. But Ghanaian politics appears to have turned into a battle between NDC and NPP, with few surprises, even when the third party candidates are smart, engaging and adding to the dialog.

Second, NDC and NPP allegiances often have more to do with geography and tribe than with platform. I saw a dispirited tweet last night that suggested the best way to improve your electoral chances was to increase the birthrate in the parties' respective strongholds. It's disappointing to see elections based more on ethnicity than on issues, but it's also clear this isn't the reason behind everyone's vote.

Here's hoping that a close race remains and peaceful one and that Ghanaians continue to have justifiable pride in a robust and transparent electoral system and a healthy democracy.