Congratulations Daniel Otting Awuah On Your Election As SRC President.
Mr. President Elect,
You won decisively, if anybody would even doubt the authenticity of the results that has trickled in, perhaps he or she will do himself or herself good by contrasting what you polled in the second round to that of the first round. You maintained what you won and also enlarged and widened the gap between yourself and Mr. Sylvester Amoako Owusu in the first and second rounds respectively.
But then again, we cannot also just throw away the allegations of Sly and his team just because of what I’ve stated above especially when we have with us a very ‘rich’ history of how Mr. Forson, the software developer have managed our elections in the past. If for nothing at all, what happened in the infamous Mikdad-Fobi election is still very fresh in the mind of many.
Many of us who then were waiting for our admission statuses to be confirmed listened and watched on the radio and TV and read glittering articles on Facebook. Perhaps I can’t judge but there was something more than meet the eye in that particular election.
I’m not sure those hailing your victory would have done so if you had found yourself on the opposite side – challenging the results of the polls as Sly and his team are doing now. I’m not sure they’d have asked us all to disregard the cries of Sylvester and his team, I’m not sure they’d have told us that Sly was just a bad looser. Perhaps if they put themselves in those shoes, their thinking will change, same as your good self.
Because what Is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. You have won this election, decisively, at least per the results as declared by the Electoral Commission but I’d indulge you to take up this few things as you enter the Union Building.
– Take a very critical look at the contract between the software developer and the SRC. It is told that the erstwhile Fobi administration have given Ipro solutions another 4 years or so to manage our election with their very ‘controversial’ software. I know that the contract was not subject to the approval of the General Assembly, the legislative arm of the SRC. And so the contract in itself have some inherent legal problems.
And to me, I don’t see the reason why with all these years of allegations against this software would keep us glued to this software that allegedly decides for us when we should decide. I don’t see why we wouldn’t go manual, with our thumbs and ink-dipped little finger – that even make one feel that he has really voted.
And not some laptops and software we don’t even know How it came about. The manual voting unlike the software isn’t that much prone to rigging. Of course it isn’t perfect but will certainly be better than a software which one can sit comfortably somewhere and manipulate even as elections is ongoing.
These are few things I’d want you to avert your mind to as you enjoy the breeze of victory. At the appropriate time, when you officially settle down as president after inauguration, we can have a more detailed conversation about this.
But before that, remember this truism “Success has many friends but failure is an Orphan”, it will help you as you Constitute your cabinet. Many who wished you’d lose will now be the best of friends singing praises because ‘nokofio’ (Ga).
–Kwaku Asante