Togo hopes for more peaceful poll

The opposition expects to do well in the capital Lome Email Print Have Your Say ( 0 ) Polls have opened in the presidential election in the west African state of Togo. President Faure Gnassingbe is running for a second term, and his main challenger is Jean Pierre Fabre of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC). The vote is being closely watched by the international community amid hopes of avoiding repetition of the violence that marred the last election. All parties have been stressing the need for a peaceful poll. President Gnassingbe is hoping to be re-elected in circumstances that will win the approval that was so lacking at the last election. The 2005 vote happened soon after the military had installed him in power on the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema. The main opposition party, the UFC, believes it won the last election. Hundreds died in ensuing protests. Campaigning this time around has been peaceful and has at times strayed into good-natured rivalry. But the authorities are taking no chances and are mixing the message of harmony with the presence of a 6,000-strong election security force. Election observers from the European Union, the African Union and the west African regional grouping Ecowas are on hand, along with the Francophone organisation. The structures in place for this election point to a desire to be seen to be doing the right thing. For the first time there is an independent electoral commission. The government website is being more than just a government mouthpiece and talks in fair terms about the opposition campaigns. But there have been claims that the ruling party of President Gnassingbe has far more resources behind its campaign than the opposition and that the vote will not be fair. The run-up to the election saw some opposition leaders suspend participation in the campaign because they were unhappy with the organisation of the election. Source: BBC

Ghana’s Democracy Is Not There Yet, E-Voting May Get Us There

Press Statement by the Danquah Institute

"It's not he who casts the votes that matters -- but he who counts the votes." -Joseph Stalin

President Obama’s visit to Ghana earlier this year, gave us all as Ghanaians deep pride in our country and in our international reputation. That our small West African nation was chosen as the first in the whole continent to be so honoured since Obama took power was the result of an achievement we have built as a whole people since 1992 in not only the reborn of democracy but successfully warring off the infant mortality that has put paid to too many of our continental contemporaries.

We are right to feel proud of this achievement and the rest of the world is right to pay tribute to it. The world does recognise that the importance of our successful multi-party democracy reaches far beyond the 23 million people within our borders. It has profound significance for other African nations whose nascent democracies might yet falter and fall. Here, we have succeeded in holding five consecutive elections in the Fourth Republic and we have succeeded in changing the reigns of power from one political party to another twice now.

But whilst we might be ahead of the pack, whilst we might lead the continent in the march towards democracy as we did 52 years ago, we still have a long road ahead of us and the future of our democracy is by no means certain.

Those of us present in Ghana, those of us involved in last December’s election, those of us who were glued to our radio stations by fear, those of us privy to the goings-on in and around the Electoral Commission, the political parties and in trouble-spots across the regions, we cannot forget how excruciatingly close Ghana came to the kind of election break-down and violence we saw in Kenya and Zimbabwe. And nor should we.

Today is exactly one year since Ghanaians went to the polls to vote on both presidential and parliamentary candidates. In looking back, we must also look ahead and provide the attention, do what is required and seek the support we need to ensure that our 2012 elections do not again bring us so perilously close to the brink of violence. Those of us at the Danquah Institute fear that without significant improvements to the credibility of Ghana’s electoral process, December 2012 could potentially turn Ghana into a war zone.

With the well-founded concerns about the reliability of our electoral register last year, combined with attempts by certain forces to cast doubts about the fairness of the polls before they had even closed, and fears about the alleged involvement of the security forces in efforts to ready the country to reject a verdict deemed unacceptable, Ghana’s election was not quite the golden example it has been hailed as (or that we wish it had been).

The main political opposition party (led by Prof. John Evans Atta Mills) was so ruthlessly efficient in developing in the minds of their hardcore supporters and also in that of some security personnel that the Electoral Commission and the ruling party were conspiring to rig the election results.

Ghana’s 2008 presidential election held the potential to deliver violence instead of peace, anarchy instead of order, regression instead of progression. A military takeover could not even have been ruled out, a point people privy to national security intelligence reports would find difficult to challenge.

There is no guarantee that the main opposition party today will not for 2012 assume the kind of dangerously militant posture and speak the kind of language that got Ghana so close to a Kenya. We cannot rule out the possibility of today’s main opposition party assuming an even more militant posture in 2012 than what struck awe and fear in many Ghanaians and international diplomats and observers last December. So, what happens if unlike 2008, the Opposition does not get its electoral way after the 2012 results are announced? What if incumbency triumphs and prevails?

To avoid this in 2012 we need to work much harder to build public faith and confidence in the nuts and bolts of our election machinery that, if properly organised, can ensure no room for inflammatory accusations of bias or tampering. We need to deny the rig-sayers the oxygen of legitimacy, with which to breathe fear, anger, hatred and venom into the lungs of the Ghanaian electorate. We should take note that the human instruments of large scale violence are not just lawless hooligans and mercenaries.

In 2008, the rig-sayers were helped by the admission on the part of the Electoral Commissioner that the voter register was massively bloated. South Africa, with a population of 47 million people, counted a voter population of some 18 million. Ghana, with a population of less than 23 million people, said it had a voter population of some 10 million. Not only does a bloated register give political parties the opportunity to rig elections, they also give rig-sayers the legitimacy to say to their supporters and sympathisers that they have been cheated and that they should stand up and resist – whether the claim is true or false. This is what characterised last year’s general elections in Ghana and Ghana, we dare say, was probably only saved by the fact that the results were called for the main opposition party and not for the incumbent government. How then do we secure the legitimacy of not only the electoral process in Ghana but also the victory of an incumbent government?

This is of particular importance in countries like ours where a virtual two-party system can produce victories based on razor-thin majorities, where a relatively small amount of rigging has the potential to dramatically change the result. Ghana is far from securing its current position as a model democracy for the majority of the continent. We need to do so and that process must begin now.

We have chosen this day to announce to the country that on February 8-9, 2010 the Danquah Institute in collaboration with other civil society groups and political parties will host a seminar on ‘The Viability of E-Voting for Ghana 2012.’

There is a growing popular view that if we had e-voting in Ghana in 2012, not only would we assure our continued position as a beacon of democracy and hope for the continent, but we would also lead the way yet again in demonstrating a method and a means by which to overcome one of the major hurdles facing young democracies in Africa – manipulation of the votes and accompanying mistrust of the result.

The sum total of international research shows that e-voting offers potential for voting and election management that is an improvement over ballot paper voting or non-biometric voter registration. For Ghana, that technological leap could be the defence weapon against the explosion of electoral violence in the future, which could ultimately deal a fatal blow to the entire democratic experiment here in Ghana and with continental consequences.

On Tuesday, 12 May, a forum was organised by the Electoral Commission in collaboration with KAB Governance Consult and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), under the theme “Safeguarding the Integrity of the Ballot Project”. What could only be described as a historical commitment was made that day. At the gathering, Ghana’s main political parties endorsed the adoption of a Biometric Voter Register as the best way to guarantee a credible database of eligible voters. In a communiqué, all the seven political parties (including NDC, NPP, CPP, PNC and DFP) in attendance, in their endorsement stated: “This is very necessary to deal authoritatively with practices of multiple voting and impersonation that tend to undermine public confidence in declared election results.”

There is a very strong case for biometric-based credentialing solution for Ghana’s Voter Registration Project. Not long after the 2008 elections, the Danquah Institute started to advocate for the consideration of e-voting. Shortly afterwards, the Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, stated that the EC was looking to adopt a biometric system of registering voters prior to the next polls, but will stop short of implementing electronic voting for election day.

Dr Afari-Gyan stated in response to a question by the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute: “The Commission is considering biometric registration of voters but as for biometric voting, I don't think the country is ready for it. If we do, I believe some people will start asking whether the Castle has not programmed the machines with some figures to their advantage.”


Again, on Wednesday, 18 March, 2009, Dr. Afari-Gyan announced on radio that a completely new voter registration exercise will take place to compile a new credible database for the 2012 general elections. The exercise will employ the best of technologies, including the use of biometric registration to beat fraudsters who attempt to exploit the voting exercise to their advantage.

During a workshop organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in October for some selected civil society organisations, leaders of political parties, religious leaders, journalists and development partners on the theme, “The survival of multi-party democracy and politics of accommodation and tolerance”, a Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr David Adenze Kanga, expressed, what we see as a very worrying scepticism about the viability of Ghana adopting a biometric voter registration system and an electronic voting system.

The Daily Graphic of Thursday, 15 October read: “Regarding the biometric system of registration and voting, Mr Kanga said the country should tread cautiously concerning voting, in order not to throw off the transparency tenets in the present voting system.”

He explained that “with the electronic voting, the electorate would be given receipts from the machine indicating that they had voted and after the process the machine would indicate how many votes each candidate received. With this process against the backdrop of the fact that the Ghanaian electorate was accustomed to the counting of ballots in their presence, the ordinary voter would not appreciate how the machine arrived at the final figures for each candidate.”


We cannot, as a nation, dismiss without the benefit of a full domestic interrogation the viability of electronic voting. Just as allegations such as the EC conspiring with the incumbent government in 2008 to rig the elections did not perturb the Commission, so should we not allow predictable allegations such as “the Castle programming the machines” to stop us from considering the suitability of that option. Ghana has developed a matured tradition of post-elections self-assessment, which often leads to the introduction of enhanced security features to the electoral system, for example, transparent ballot boxes in 1996, and photo voter IDs in 2000. Surely, this is not the time to sidestep that tradition.

Though, there is talk of biometric voter registration or electronic voting as possibly the way forward, this prospect is being allowed to be easily shot down by the cynics because we are yet to devote enough intellectual resources to interrogate seriously this modern system of voting and its viability in Ghana. The fundamental question to be addressed before 2012 is how do we protect the integrity of the elections from the point of voter registration to the moment of winner certification? Linked to this is the question, what are the factors that influence public confidence in elections?

In 2008, both the rulling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), at the time, accused each other of encouraging non-citizens, ghost names, as well as underage Ghanaians to register ahead of the elections. Speculations about and evidence of a bloated voter register went very far to undermine the credibility of the December vote. The possibility of a bloated register also fed steroids to the macho men of electoral fraud and violence, since a bloated voter register allows the opportunity to add up numbers and intimidate your opponents, ironically even as a defence strategy against an assumed threat of fraud against the intimidator’s political party.

In the words of Dr. Afari Gyan concerning Ghana’s 2008 voters’ register:
“If our population is indeed 22 million, then perhaps 13 million people on our register would be statistically unacceptable by world standards. If that is the case, then it may mean that there is something wrong with our register.”

Political parties exploited public admission and knowledge of a bloated voter register to feed their fears and trumpet allegations that there was a plot by a particular party or between an opposing party and electoral officers to rig the December polls. This gained legitimacy in the minds of several Ghanaians, including, perhaps, most dangerously some members in the security agencies. Thus, the ‘battlefield’ for a possible rejection of the results had been provided. We cannot as a nation continue with the undemocratic phenomenon where the balance of victory in our elections will be determined by how well a political party thinks it can manipulate results in its electoral strongholds.

The EC is yet to explain to Ghanaians how come after four previous presidential elections, 2008 registered the highest number of spoilt ballots (in both percentages and actual numbers), when the same system was used last year. With an election that less than 40,000 votes decided who swore the presidential oath on January 7, having over 200,000 spoilt ballots deserves more than a cursory comment. There is no such thing anywhere in the world as perfect election arrangement, but it has been shown elsewhere that electronic voting stops ballot box stuffing, ballot box theft and destruction, multiple voting, reduces spoilt ballots to zero, and saves the EC in printing, storage, staff costs, etc. Some jurisdictions have even maintained paper ballot in addition to electronic voting to serve as a counter-check in case of a dispute, thereby responding adequately to the very concerns raised by Mr. Kanga above. It is worth examining all the various options of e-voting, their security and usability features and their cost-benefit dimensions in order to make a responsible and informed decision on the way forward for Ghana’s electoral process.

In Ghana’s volatile and charged partisan political environment, it is extremely important that we have a trusted election process, where elections will be regarded as reasonably fair, even by the losing side. If India, with more illiterates than the entire population of Ghana, with 714 million registered voters, 828,000 polling stations, and many polling stations in areas with no electricity, could deploy one million battery-powered Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for an election with more than 100 political parties and not register any notable voice of protest, then Ghana would do herself a great disservice by refusing to examine constructively the viability of an electronic electoral process.

The spectre of hundreds of very angry young men wielding cutlasses at the vicinity of the EC headquarters last December should at least remind us of how close Ghana got to become another Kenya instead of the black star of hope that it is today that Africa can indeed hold ‘normal’ general elections. The platform on which Ghana has been receiving global applause for its performance at the theatre of elections is fragile. We need not allow our weaknesses to be deafened by the din of global praise. We must get to work now and tighten the nuts and bolts of our electoral process. E-voting may well turn out to be the best way to securing the future of Africa’s fledgling democracies and, if so, Ghana should not miss this self-serving opportunity to blaze once again the continental trail. Democracy must succeed in Ghana and biometric registration and e-voting may well provide us with the warranty for democracy’s enduring success.

Thank you

Ivory Coast rivals agree to hold delayed vote in 2010

Burkina Faso President Compaore (r) has been leading the peace talks Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and his main political rivals have agreed to hold the postponed November presidential election early in 2010. The poll should now be held in February or March of next year, according to mediators, after a meeting of regional countries in Burkina Faso. The vote has been put off several times since Mr Gbagbo's term ended in 2005. The world's biggest cocoa producer is slowly recovering after being cut in half by a civil war for several years. The former rebel New Forces seized northern Ivory Coast in 2002. They are now sharing power with Mr Gbagbo under a United Nations-backed peace deal. New Forces leader Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, former President Henri Konan Bedie and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara agreed the new date with Mr Gbagbo. However, the key question of who is eligible to vote has still not been settled. The AFP news agency reports that the status of some one million people has not been agreed by the electoral commission. Some 5.3 million people have been registered, AFP reports.

Equatorial Guinea President Obiang 'wins 95% of vote'

President Obiang won 97% of votes in the last election President Teodor Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea has been re-elected with 95% of the votes cast in last month's election, official results say. The main opposition candidate has already said he will not accept the results, saying the poll was rigged. Placido Mico Abogo gained just 3.6% of the vote in the oil-rich state. President Obiang first seized power from his uncle in 1979. He gained 97% of the vote in the previous election, in 2002. Equatorial Guinea's vast earnings from oil and gas should give its population of 600,000 people a theoretical income of $37,000 (£22,000) a year each. But most Equatorial Guineans live in poverty after 15 years of plentiful oil production. It is Africa's third largest oil producer. The BBC's correspondent in the region, Caspar Leighton, says the leader of the opposition is not alone in judging the election to be flawed. The electoral roll will not be published and the country's electoral commission is run by President Obiang's interior minister. Human rights groups also said the vote was unlikely to have been free and fair. Human Rights Watch describes Equatorial Guinea's government as one of the most abusive and corrupt in the world. But international investors remain firmly attached to the oil and gas wealth of this tiny African nation. Normally a secretive state, Equatorial Guinea made headlines in October with the pardoning of a group of South African and British mercenaries headed by Simon Mann who had been jailed for attempting a coup. BBC

Pohamba and Swapo party re-elected in Namibia election

Profile: Hifikepunye Pohamba Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba has been re-elected for a second term after winning 76.4% of the vote in last week's poll, official results show. Mr Pohamba's governing Swapo party got 74% of the parliamentary vote, maintaining its two-thirds majority. Eight of 13 opposition parties that took part in the vote have vowed to contest the results in court, alleging voting and counting irregularities. The groups say counting was very slow, permitting widespread vote rigging. African observer missions have pronounced the elections held on 27-28 November as largely free and fair. The main opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) party, led by Hidipo Hamutenya, won 11.3% of the vote, results showed. Two years ago, the party broke away from Swapo, which has dominated Namibia's politics since the country gained independence in 1990 after a long struggle against rule by South Africa.

Ablakwa: Free, fair and transparent election no rocket science

Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says greed and gross disrespect for the will of the people underline the precarious recurrence of marred elections in Africa. Otherwise, “…conducting a free, fair and transparent election is not rocket science. It is indeed a basic and simple task,” he told his audience at the 2009 Annual Public Lecture & Awards of the West African Students Union (WASU) in Kaduna, Nigeria. “We are talking about ordinary plastic boxes, ordinary paper, ordinary indelible inks and people of our own kind who queue just like the way they queue at the transport yard any other day – in this basic exercise, if not for wonders, we don’t expect to see weapons, macho men, self-styled Olympic athletes who run away with ballot boxes and magical electoral officials who declare results for polling stations where not a single person voted,” he said. Okudzeto, who spoke on the topic; Credible Elections; The Bedrock Of National Development, said Ghana, South Africa and a handful of other nations may offer strong pointers as a continent reforming its practices and growing its democracy, however, too many drawbacks are tending to wipe out any gains. “As I speak, Uganda, Chad and Cameroon have just amended their constitutions to enable sitting presidents run for a third term. “In this era, Coups appear to be raging on as Guinea, Madagascar and Mauritania have added to the list. A strange animal called power-sharing has been discovered. And less I forget, dynasties are emerging again. In the places where there have been elections, many have fallen short of international standards as they are anything but free, fair and transparent.” Myjoyonline.com/Ghana Read the Deputy Minister’s full statement below ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER FOR INFORMATION SAMUEL OKUDZETO ABLAKWA ON ‘CREDIBLE ELECTIONS; THE BEDROCK OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT’ AT THE 2009 ANNUAL PUBLIC LECTURE & AWARDS OF THE WEST AFRICAN STUDENT’S UNION (WASU) ON Thursday October 22, 2009- Arewa House Kaduna, Nigeria It is difficult to say I bring you greetings from home. This is because as far as Nigeria and Ghana are concerned, both countries are home to all of us. That notwithstanding, I bring you warm greetings from Ghana, a country where many of our brothers and sisters from Nigeria now comfortably and peacefully reside just as Ghanaians do here in Nigeria. While I was preparing to leave for Lagos enroute to Kaduna, the whole of Ghana was still reveling and jubilating in the euphoria brought about by the historic victory of our Under-20 football team, the Black Satellites, at the just-ended World Youth Tournament in Egypt, the very first by an African country. I am aware that many Nigerians and indeed Africans generally, celebrated this victory and as my President, His Excellency John Atta Mills, put it; it is a victory for all Africans. My brothers and sisters, I thank you all and especially the Regional Executive Council of the West Africa Students’ Union (WASU) for this invitation and the honour to share my thoughts at this all important gathering. May I take this opportunity to commend WASU for their contribution to Africa’s political heritage. Though WASU’s history has been checkered, no fair analyst would omit WASU when recounting Africa’s triumph over colonialism. It is in this light that I am eternally happy I was part of the resuscitating effort when I was president of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and I salute Comrade Daniel Onjeh and his colleagues for keeping the torch burning. Comrades and Friends, The theme I am required to speak to this morning being “Credible Elections; the bedrock of national development”, calls for nothing but absolute frankness. We gather here at a time Africa’s democratic credentials are under a cloud of uncertainty. There are many who are vigorously engaged in a debate as to whether Africa’s democratic clock is still ticking, has stopped or has even gone anti-clockwise. Only this week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation was unable to declare a winner. Only this week, ECOWAS has had to impose sanctions on Guinea due to the bastardization of democracy by a military junta. As I speak, Uganda, Chad and Cameroon have just amended their constitutions to enable sitting presidents run for a third term. In this era, Coups appear to be raging on as Guinea, Madagascar and Mauritania have added to the list. A strange animal called power-sharing has been discovered. And less I forget, dynasties are emerging again. In the places where there have been elections, many have fallen short of international standards as they are anything but free, fair and transparent. I do agree that luckily, we may have the Ghana and South African positive story to tell in recent times but we must be honest to ourselves that too many negatives will drown any positive gain anywhere. There are those who have said that there can be no credible elections in Africa. Indeed, I cannot agree with that assertion. It is akin to telling me Africa cannot get anything right. First of all, it is important that we all agree that conducting a free, fair and transparent election is not rocket science. It is indeed a basic and simple task. We are talking about ordinary plastic boxes, ordinary paper, ordinary indelible inks and people of our own kind who queue just like the way they queue at the transport yard any other day – in this basic exercise, if not for wonders, we don’t expect to see weapons, macho men, self-styled Olympic athletes who run away with ballot boxes and magical electoral officials who declare results for polling stations where not a single person voted. The reason why things take this wonderful turn is nothing but greed and gross disrespect of the will of the people. There are a group of politicians who see themselves as natural heirs and that without them nobody else must govern, they are God’s only and permanent gift to their people and when you refer such “God sent politicians” to Abraham Lincoln’s 1854 speech where he stated that “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent” they are likely to tell you to go to hell. Comrades and Friends, History has taught us that the politicians who do not aim at the true verdict of the people stifle development and in most instances are richer than their countries. It is therefore to be observed that a natural benefit of free, fair and transparent elections is national development. Where the political elite know they will be accountable to the people in the next four or five years, they do their best to better the lots of their countrymen and women so as not to be shown the exit on accountability day. As you are aware, Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992 after we experienced military coups, but later gained political stability largely through the efforts of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, one of our former military rulers who became democratic. He contested elections and won and finally handed over power to an opposition candidate, John Kufuor in the year 2000. John Kufuor was re-elected in 2004, and in 2008 his party lost to the opposition, and John Atta Mills, who was earlier defeated by John Kufuor in 2000 became President. Ghana has been described as a model of Good Governance in the West African sub-region. Ghana’s example, that of Senegal, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and some Nigerian elections are a further illustration that democracy and credible elections are possible in Africa. The election of 2000 was the first democratic transition of power from the ruling party to the opposition in Ghana's history, and in 2008 another credible election was conducted. These elections attracted US President Barrack Obama to visit our country as an example of what is possible. May I state that this notwithstanding, we are not complacent in Ghana as we are of the view that we can improve and eliminate some of the shortcomings of previous elections. It is in this vein that Government has agreed to fund the Electoral Commission in preparing a fresh Voters Register which we suspect was bloated in the last elections. We are also considering a biometric system of voting. My brothers and sisters, I am very proud to state here that hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian youth played, and still play, a very active role in the struggle to sanitize our electoral system. I recall the confidence our leaders, including the Founder of my party, the National Democratic Congress- former President J. J. Rawlings and the current President, His Excellency John Atta Mills, reposed in many young men and women and encouraged us to join the forefront in our quest to sanitize our electoral system. That paid off, as many young Ghanaians have become politically active and alive to what needs to be done to ensure that our elections are credible no matter the fraudulent schemes put in place. From experience, one of the sure ways of strengthening our democratic structures and building a strong electoral machinery is for us as a people to develop greater political consciousness and to be eternally vigilant during the conduct of elections. It is important for us to appreciate the fact that as nations that have embraced constitutional democracy, we cannot develop when national elections to elect our leaders are not credible. The end result would be tension, civil strife, cynicism, lack of legitimacy and a non-committal attitude in helping the government succeed. This will certainly lead to a negation of the successes chalked by our countries. The facts speak for themselves that African countries that are stable and hold credible elections have better macro-economic statistics. For example most of these countries have grown at an annual average of 7% GDP, inflation is normally less than 20% and interest rates are far better when compared to countries in other categories. Their Human Development Index according to the United Nations also show a positive trend and social interventions are normally rife in these countries. Agreeably, credible elections trigger national development, we as African politicians must be committed to play by the rules at all times in order that when you are elected you can enjoy the respect and popular legitimacy of the electorate. Of course, we cannot have a credible election without an equally credible and independent elections management body. That calls for an Independent Electoral Commission that is manned by professionals who are non-partisan in their dealings in order to be able to win the confidence of all parties and contestants in elections. The independent electoral commission must also actively involve the political parties at all times, more crucially before the polls so that all stakeholders will be involved in setting the ground rules from the very beginning. Also, we can only guarantee credible elections in our countries when the process is totally free, fair and transparent. That will require that we allow everybody an opportunity to have a say or share in the process by making their voices heard. Very importantly, the candidates and the electorate- must be guaranteed equal access to airtime and newspaper space in the state media. Particularly for ruling governments, we must ensure that all the candidates and their parties are treated with equity under the law. Your Excellencies, comrades and friends, Many of Africa’s young men and women are not asking for favours. What we want are opportunities that will allow us to demonstrate our talents and be able to take advantage of the natural resources around us. In Ghana, many of the country’s youth are expectant of the new government, believing that the commitment of President Atta Mills to create opportunities will be realised. With the appointment of many young persons in his government, the president has more than demonstrated that the future of the country rests on its young people. Accordingly, various interventions aimed at investing in people, creating jobs, improving the livelihood of all and building a Better Ghana are currently under implementation. One of such programs is the Youth in Agriculture concept under which over 30,000 hectares of land has been cultivated by young people with all inputs including seedlings, fertilisers and tractor ploughing provided free of charge by government. Ladies and gentlemen, on a continent that has many unemployed graduates, such innovative interventions are important in demystifying the notion that farming is for school drop outs, while mechanising our agriculture and ensuring food security all year round. As a young person, and infact the youngest minister in President Mills’ administration, it is my hope that African governments develop structures that provide the youth with various opportunities. The youth are also crying for a more open and transparent engagement with the citizenry such that they can positively engage their governments. My colleagues and I at Ghana’s Ministry of Information, for instance have various modules with which we constantly interact with the citizenry including the ever popular social networking platform, facebook. You’ll be amazed at the number of Ghanaians, both home and abroad who continue to applaud these initiatives which include unfettered access to our offices for one-on-one sessions, radio and TV discussions and field trips to explain government policies and get feedback on our activities. My brothers and sisters, In sum, the tenets of true democracy is not just about holding elections but where we respect the will and aspirations of the people at all times, not only at elections, where the number of voters on election day does not exceed the number of registered voters at the polling station even when the voters register itself might be bloated, where there is no snatching of ballot boxes, where there is no violence and intimidation, where we do not throw money at the people during elections, where losers are gracious in defeat and winners are magnanimous in victory. We will get there by a conscious and committed effort at attitudinal and electoral reforms. This as young people, we must commit ourselves to and I am glad the Nigerian Government has electoral reforms key on her agenda- it is important that all views are taken on board, we should not be coy to exchange ideas and expertise on how both Ghana and Nigeria can improve our electoral systems and most importantly any electoral reform must not disadvantage any group, segment or society. It is also important for me to stress that when electoral reforms and improvements have been attained, we must make sure that the way we share the ballot paper on voting day, is the same way we share the national cake. One man one vote, one citizen one slice. We have no choice if we are to end cynicism amongst African people about their political elite. Your Excellencies, comrades and friends, Our past as a continent so far as democracy and credible elections are concerned is certainly unpleasant but posterity’s interest will be whether we entrenched this unpleasant past or whether we extricated ourselves and like Confucius may we come to that sacred conclusion: “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of as in a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.” Long live WASU, Long live Africa.

Mozambique votes in national poll

Mozambique is preparing to vote in elections for a new president, parliament and regional assemblies. The governing party, Frelimo, which has been in power since independence in 1975, is widely expected to win, helped by splits in the opposition. The current President, Armando Guebuza, says he will work towards national unity and development. His two opponents, Afonso Dhlakama and Daviz Simango, said it was time to end Frelimo's monopoly of power. As well as the presidency, Frelimo currently holds 160 seats in the 250-seat parliament. Polls open at 0600 (0400GMT) and close at 1800, with early results expected later on Wednesday. Export drop Frelimo has held power since independence, fighting a civil war until 1992 with Renamo, which was backed by the white minority government in South Africa. Recent economic reforms have given the country strong GDP growth, although the effects of the world economic crisis have made themselves felt, and exports have dropped significantly this year. Afonso Dhlakama, a veteran Renamo leader, is President Guebuza's main opponent. He says he won't contest the presidency again if he loses this election. Daviz Simango's Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), which was only formed nine months ago after splitting from Renamo, has been excluded from fielding candidates in nine of the 13 parliamentary regions. He says that Frelimo is trying to stifle the opposition, but the country's Constitutional Council rejected MDM appeals to contest polls nationwide, saying its registration papers were not in order. Mr Simango, formerly mayor of the country's second city Beira, says that Frelimo's policies have favoured the south of the country at the expense of other regions. "We want to change this scenario," said Mr Simango. In all, 19 parties are taking part in the elections, but several more were barred by the Constitutional Council. Source: BBC