CODEO Declared PVT Election Results

By-Mohammed Saani Ibrahim—The Accra Times

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers [CODEO] has described the result of the December 7th polls declared by the Electoral Commission [EC] as the true reflections of how Ghanaians’ voted.

The Coalition therefore advised Presidential Contestants’ and their followers as well as the general public to place confidence in the E.C’s official Presidential election results declared on Sunday.

This information was made known in Accra during the occasion of CODEO’s declaration of its Parallel Voters Tabulation [PVT] results which was found to be in consistent with the official E.C Presidential results.

Addressing pressmen, CODEO Co-Chair, Justice VCRAC Crabbe, called on all political parties and their supporters to respect the will of the Ghanaian people and to accept the results of the 2012 presidential results in good faith.

Justice Crabbe further commends the mature behavior of the Ghanaian electorate in remaining calm and peaceful throughout the voting, counting and collating processes. ‘’For the sake of transparency and verification, we urged the Electoral Commission to publish the election results of all polling stations in the country’’.

The Coalition reiterated their earlier call for the need of Ghana’s political parties and the entire political class to take adequate measures to bridge political polarization that characterized the polls campaign, especially between the two leading parties.

This Justice Crabbe is of the view will help reduce the winner takes all politics tendency which is needed in Ghana for the sake of peace, unity, good governance and to sustain socio- economic development.

The Co-Chair on behalf of the Coalition’s Advisory Board and its member organizations, used the opportunity to thank the thousands of Ghanaians across the country that volunteered to be non-partisan observers and worked tirelessly to protect the integrity of the December 7th Polls.

‘’ In this election, it is Ghana and Ghanaians who have won and that it is not an exclusive victory for any political party or candidate’’ he emphasized.

He explained that the PVT is an advanced and scientific election observation technique that enables the election observers stationed at polling stations to record and transmit, in real-time, information about the conduct of the polls.

The PVT was conducted to help scientifically and independently verify the accuracy of the official result of the presidential election declared by the Electoral Commission. The methodology was first used successfully in the Philippines in 1986 and later replicated successfully in other African countries such as Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe.