General News of Saturday, 24 March 2018
Source: mynewsgh.com
2018-03-24
Robert Jackson, US Ambassador to Ghana
The United States Ambassador to Ghana Robert Jackson has stated that the United States government is very much proud of the role it played in the success of Ghana’s 2016 election, MYNEWSGH.com can report.
The Electoral Commission (EC) headed by embattled Charlotte Osei declared the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, the winner of the 2016 elections, with the NPP Flagbearer finally secured the presidency after his third attempt, beating incumbent Presidenr, John Mahama.
Nana Akufo-Addo won the election with 53.85 percent of the valid votes cast to become Ghana’s fifth president under the fourth Republic with President Mahama, who ran on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), securing a humiliating 44.40 of valid votes cast, making it the first defeat of an incumbent since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992.
Akufo-Addo who campaigned on a anti-corruption message of change, the economy and jobs described the president as the most “incompetent” in the history of Ghana and a threat to the future of the country; while President Mahama campaigned on a message of continuity ‘Toaso’ of his numerous infrastructure projects across the country, also mocking the opposition who were on a “promising-spree.”
The electorates decided.
The United States Ambassador to Ghana is saying that at every stage throughout the electioneering process, the US was interested and following to ensure peace prevailed and all sides accepted the outcome.
“I think we can all be proud of the role we played in the 2016 elections_, he told the American business community in Ghana.
In the full speech whose transcript MYNEWSGH.com has obtained, the top diplomat went further to explain what role they played:
“The U.S. government, mostly through USAID, provided approximately $7.3 million for nonpartisan, technical assistance for the elections. Our investments in the Electoral Commission, the National Peace Council, civil society efforts, and observer missions resulted in the best possible return on investment: a peaceful, transparent election that made Ghanaians proud and set this country apart from many other African nations.” He revealed.
He mentioned as perhaps most important, the 2m dollar support the US government have to the Center for Democratic Development CDD Ghana for its voter tabulation exercise, which was near-accurate to the EC results.
“Perhaps most importantly, a $2 million USAID grant enabled the Centre for Democratic Development — an independent Ghanaian NGO — to deploy observers to 7,000 of the 29,000 polling stations to conduct a parallel vote tabulation. Using data gathered from these observers they were able to independently verify the officially declared results. The PVT results were spot on, showing less than one-tenth of a percent variation from the official results.”, he said.
He also mentioned that he spoke frequently to then President John Mahama and candidate Akufo-Addo to accept the outcome, leading to President Mahama calling Nana Akufo-Addo to concede defeat.