If, as they say, the voice of the people is the voice of God, then the good Lord must have a rich sense of humour. One look at some happenings in what would turn out to be the first of two rounds of the 2008 national elections and the point is amply made. Talk of a national election variously billed as the last showdown with escalating stakes immediately reigning in the spectacle of spurious opinion polls of doubtful motives. And they were many, from within and without they came predicting figures low and high for their candidate. It was poignant that national opinion polls could become so commonplace as to be reduced to the status of newspaper rejoinders. And so today, an international group would publish its polls, tomorrow a Ghanaian group would not only rubbish the said polls but would also actually proceed to publish its own polls freshly delivered from the research field and a direct response to that poll result which they initially disagreed to. Of course, with this will spark an Internet war replete with vile insults and coarse vituperative language. Ei! So do people have the capacity to conduct nation-wide opinion polls at three-day intervals? But all along, the voice of God was rearing up to find free expression in the laughter of the people. December 7 will show. You can do your Internet wars and outdo each other in the insults department. You can even lie about your achievements but December 7 will show. And God will have the last laugh. And the good people of Ghana did; 49.13 per cent for Nana Akufo-Addo and 47.98 per cent for Prof Atta Mills, thus ushering in a second round slated for December 28. And while we are at it, did your polls also predict the observed trends in the Parliamentary elections? I guess not! But still the God who knew the end from the beginning saw a run-off, not that ‘one touch’! Sophistication is now a popular word with which the Ghanaian electorate may be described. If you doubt it, listen to a voter's comments from Tema as reported by the Ghana News agency. “At Tema Community One, some voters who voted for the NPP in the first round told the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday that they would change their voting pattern in the second round to enable the NDC win the presidential race to correspond with their majority win in Parliament. They explained that even if the NPP won, ruling the country would be difficult for them since the NDC would use their majority in Parliament to sabotage its policies. So, you simultaneously think the NDC is capable of both sabotage and the capacity to form the next government? Insightful! Well, it is the voice of the people, the voice of God teaching humility to power brokers. Power belongs to the people after all and power ought to be used on behalf of the people, for the good of the people! Between and betwixt, NPP’s Atta-Kennedy would recount a voting day story of the conduct of a policeman from the Central Region, where he had gone to vote. A ruckus had erupted over some issue or the other. A patriotic policeman walk up to the folks and blare out, “Did you listen to the BBC this morning? This morning the BBC said the eyes of the world are upon us, so please, everybody should behave!” Very touching, very patriotic! In another police story, we are educated on politically incorrect ways of handling the scorching African sun on voting day. Finding the heat unbearable, some voters had hoisted their….errm..umbrellas whereupon officers of the peace pointed out that the umbrella was a political symbol! Agyei! I guess a case could alternately be made for riding to the polling centre on voting day on the back of an elephant, the reasoning being that the elephant would be explained away merely as a means of transport. O! African politics couldn’t be sweeter. Then would come a video clip to be shown quite often on Metro TV during and post the first round of election 2008. During the run-up to the elections, some political parties would pay close attention to the vigilance of their party polling agents. This posture will be informed by past experience. Specifically, as has been said repeatedly, lots of the elections are won or lost at the polling station. Indeed, stories abound as to how four years ago, party agents from different parties were freely mingling while sharing laughter and food. Traditional Ghanaian hospitality, one would say, but these were serious elections o! Indeed in the end, so unprofessional and compromising had the relationship/vigilance become that some party agents would unwittingly be reported to have signed an empty results form before the end of the polls so that “we can go home early”. In the event, less honourable minds with evil intentions would be given free reign to. Not this time, which is where the Metro TV clip comes in. The clip showed an elderly man, upwards of 60 years monitoring the counting with every ounce of energy he could muster. Late into the night, sleep must have proved to him to be a formidable opponent and with his eyes closing, this man, whom, for the purposes of this story, we will call Alhaji, said no way! Right before our very eyes, Alhaji would use fingers of both hands to pull down his lower eyelids, protrude his eyeballs and refuse the spirit of sleep as he counted along “79, 80, 81…” That was funny. My last reverie is rooted in the Weija Parliamentary and Presidential elections. I must concede that looked at from the point of view of stealing the people’s verdict, this is no laughing matter. Looked at however, from the lighter side of the story as narrated on Joy FM, it is indeed seriously funny. In Weija, one aspirant is originally declared winner. Was recounting ordered and re-ordered? I still don’t know. What is not in doubt is that the incumbent disputed the election results whereupon it was decided to ferry all ballot boxes to the District Electoral Office to sort out the matter of which ballot boxes to include and which to exclude in the counting. And then the plot thickens. For the exodus to Amasaman from Weija, ballot boxes are loaded unto three KIA trucks. Midway, one KIA truck breaks down. The fan belt is torn, it is discovered. The other KIA trucks have meanwhile long gone. Are the party agents still with the trucks? Which trucks? Which party agent has gone with which trucks? Calls are made. Miraculously, one driver says he has a spare fan belt and would thus return to replace. Right on cue, a ‘Good’ Samaritan truck appears from nowhere and is commandeered to assist. Ballot boxes (still under contention) are offloaded from the break-down KIA truck unto the ‘Good’ Samaritan truck. Right there and then, driver with spare fan belt arrives, replaces the torn one and presto, the KIA truck is good to go to Amasaman, whereupon the ballot boxes under contention are offloaded yet again from the ‘Good’ Samaritan truck back unto the KIA truck! Ebei! I mean I know the story is kind of a long winding one bordering on the incredible but I swear, I heard it with my own ears, so we might as well finish its telling. At Amasaman, NDC agent complains that the seals of some boxes are broken. Israel Laryea from Joy FM does a double take. The electoral officer concurs. The police officer also agrees that the seals are indeed broken but there is a…..logical explanation to all this from the two, “Well, you know how bad our roads are….you yourself saw how bumpy the one we just used was.... The bumpy roads may be responsible for the broken seals…!” Aba! Wow! E hard o! Fitting, I guess that the matter is going to be settled in a court of law, albeit leaving us with the distinct impression that the truth may after all, never fully be known. Come what may, God willing, we shall do this again come December 28, 2008. But within all man’s fussing and fighting, one must never forget that God, who knows the end from the beginning, knows the next President and the good people of Ghana whose voices He would use would inevitably have the last laugh. Credit: Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey Source: Daily Graphic