John Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo
The positions of the two major political parties on the ballot paper for the 2008 elections were reversed for the December 7, 2012 presidential polls as the Electoral Commission (EC) drew the ballot yesterday.
The NDC now occupies the first spot on the ballot, while the NPP takes the third spot.
The draw for the ballot position for the eight presidential aspirants who successfully filed their nominations was conducted at the EC headquarters yesterday.
The picture on the number one spot will be that of President John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); at the second spot is the Great Consolidated Popular Party’s Dr. Henry Lartey.
On the third position is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Progressive People’s Party’s Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom will be at the fourth position while the United Front Party (UFP), led by businessman Akwasi Addei Odike, will occupy the fifth position. The sixth and seventh positions will be occupied by the People’s National Convention (PNC) candidate, Hassan Ayariga and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) flagbearer Dr. Abu Sakara respectively.
The last spot was automatically reserved for the independent candidate, Jacob Kwesi Yeboah.
Nana’s Reaction
Nana Akufo-Addo said it did not matter where a candidate was.
“So long as I’m on the ballot, I think that’s what matters. The last time I was number one I didn’t win, former president Mills then was number three and he won. This time I am number three hopefully that’s a sign that I would win.
“But I don’t really think that where you are on the ballot really matters very much. We’ve seen it, people have won from different places on the ballot.
“President Kufuor won from the bottom… I really don’t think that is significant, what is significant is the message that you’re giving and how people are responding to that message.”
He intimated that “as far as that aspect of things is going, I’m very happy where we are at this stage of the campaign. We just had a rousing reception all over Brong Ahafo and this is largely because of the big disappointment of the NDC and secondly a sense of what we’re offering them.
“The school education policies, our health policy, our policies on the economic expansion and industrialisation, all those things are messages that are going down well with the people and I’m counting on that to take us through.”
According to the EC’s Vice Chairman responsible for Operations, Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, it was an age-long convention for candidates without any political affiliations to occupy the last spot on the ballot paper.
The Friday balloting came right on the heels of the close of nominations for presidential aspirants for the December 7 elections.
The atmosphere during the balloting was generally light with cordial interactions between representatives of the various political parties.
The presidential candidates of the two leading parties were not present but their representatives were.
The process was generally described as fair and open. “It was done very well, the approach was good,” remarked Eva Lokko, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom’s running-mate who drew the ballot for the PPP.
The process was that printed numbers on square-shaped pieces of paper were juggled in a simple transparent plastic bowl.
The Reversal
According to the NPP Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the reversed position on the ballot paper “… is a position that God wanted us to have”.
When asked if the NPP anticipated being on the third spot, he said, “You don’t plan, you pray, you pray that whatever happens, it will be in God’s will.
“I prayed before I picked, I got number three. Last time I picked, I got number one; we lost. The person who picked number one in 2004, they lost, the party that picked number one in 2000, they lost. I think number three will do it.”
In 2004, the NDC’s Evans Atta Mills was on the number one spot and he lost the elections. In 2008, the NPP’s Nana Addo placed first on the ballot paper; he lost to Prof. Mills, who was third on the paper.
Jake believes this is the magic position.
The NDC’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, who picked the number one spot, disagreed. “By divine intervention, our plans are working. We are saying that NDC is going to win the election one-touch and our presidential candidate has been waving his finger in a symbolic one-touch, so it means that God agrees with us that we going to go one-touch.”
Numerology
Meanwhile, there are all sorts of number juggling and mystical interpretations being ascribed to the various positions picked by the contending parties. Some associate victory to the positions they picked.
Donkor Aiyifli, a member of the CPP, who drew the number seven slot for the party, concluded that the divinity of the number seven would bring victory to the CPP.
“The number I have picked is greater than any number in this room. In the Bible, seven is important in everything we do: the resting day which is number seven is the most important in the world…”
“My picking seven is telling Ghanaians that when you vote for us, you would rest: You rest from all your problems,” he noted.
Akwasi Addei Odike of the UFP, which occupies the number five position, said the number signified security which he wanted to make a key point of his campaign.
Eva Lokko of the PPP said, “It has no significance whatsoever. You see, it is very interesting. This is just a purely administrative process because you have to be put in a certain order on the paper. EC is doing it so that nobody says because you put me here that is why I had a problem. We should not try to read any tea leaves into an administrative process.”
Bernard Monarh, the General Secretary of the PNC, would rather want to focus on winning through hard work rather than relying on the science of numbers.
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