So the votes are in and the officials are counting....will the country get a new president?

The last couple of weeks in the run up to the elections have been absolutely bonkers with people rallying and hooting about the place dressed in their party regalia trying to influence voters and get support for their party. The all night parties have been legendary, and the rallies have been full on in every single little village and major city across the country. There have been highlights (like when the president came to town) and low lights (like when one of the major parties leaders fell through a stage whilst rallying to about a million people!) and lots of all-through-the-night-party-till-you-drop lights. I think a lot of people are simply using the excitement as yet another excuse to have a good old time!

There are two major parties in the running - NDC (National Democratic Congress) and NPP (National People's Party) and each have been brazenly espousing their policies via the television, internet, radio and by distributing massive posters all about the place since about last August. The main promise of the NPP is that they will provide free senior high school education, and the NDC's line is simply that the good stuff will continue (as they are the current presidential party). It's not for me to comment, but it's been very interesting to hear some of the highly charged political debates on the radio the last few weeks; serious amounts of energy go into the whole game and each party is constantly trying to get one up on the other, rumours are rife and regular dispelling of the myths and confirmations of te truths are required.

Mostly it's been peaceful, although there was a little skirmish in Zebilla a couple of evenings ago when I was quietly sitting in my office and herd a whole load of noise coming from town. Next thing I know there was sirens blaring, horns hooting and police firing warning shots to disperse the crowds. It was only when my colleague came flying into her compound on her moto after closely escaping being caught up in things that I really understood what was going on! Basically it was almost the last day of campaigning, and both parties wanted to have a big rally party at the 'lorry park' in town (a big place near the market that would be really busy as it was market day), there was some confusion about who had the right to party there, and so a big fight broke out. To be honest it didn't really surprise me, it had been the busiest market day I'd ever seen in Zebilla, seeing as the next market day would be voting day, and the rallying had been going on hard and fast and the vibe getting more and more hyped up. The police arrested the culprits and brought them to the police station. As it's near our office we watched as hoards of people chased the police down the street in protest at the arrests. It all calmed down fairly quickly, both parties got to have their parties, in different locations across town, and the culprits were released on bail to go and enjoy the fun.

Since then Zebilla has been a rather quiet place. The only noise (which was still super loud and did keep me awake half the night) was the teeny little phone shop in town which has the BIGGEST speakers and decided to broadcast the radio into the night and the morning before voting started. But as for the people, once the campaign restrictions fell into place, most of them simply geared up to vote...and waited quietly. (Except for one man who did carry on hooting his vuvuzela about town of course...I don't think he really understood the rules and was clearly confused as to why no one would join him, but he carried on tootling about the place anyway like a lost and confused wind-up toy).

Voting began on Friday, as did the VSO volunteer 'lock-down' (all volunteers to stay at home for three days whilst things go on, just in case something should happen...), and was supposed to last for only one day. They are using a new bio-metric voting system, and of course there were problems with it. There were also polling stations where the officials turned up late (typical!), so in the end many people waited for hours upon hours to vote, and many didn't even get chance before the polling stations closed. So it was decided a second day for voting was required, and it continued into yesterday. This did cause some tensions in some areas down south, but mostly in the north people seemed to just be getting on with it. We took a wander into town seeing as the place was so sleepy, and spent a bit of time in Williams alcohol store watching the results come out live on the Ghanaian elections news channel. It was all very exciting as they announced results for some of the 275 parliamentary winners, but Upper East had only 1 out of 15 lots of voting results ready, so it wasn't until last night that the people here knew their parliamentary winner, NDC.

This morning the place is still really sleepy and super quiet, it's like the whole country is holding their breath to find out who the president will be, 252 constituency results have so far been confirmed out of 275, and NDC are leading, but they reckon the Electoral Commission will finally announce the full results this afternoon. Before I thought that as soon as it is announced there would be a massive party by the winners, but I actually think perhaps people will be too tired from all the pre-voting madness and they may just accept the results quietly. We will see!

Whilst we volunteers are not allowed to discuss politics or get involved in these issues, it has been really interesting to be here and experience the country in election year. I've had such an insight into the politics here seeing as its been such a hot topic and many people want to discuss it all about town. But it's left to see whether what the parties are proposing will actually be put into practice, the same as in any country but slightly trickier seeing as the coutry faces issues f corruption and mis-management. The changes will no doubt take place way down the line after I've left here and come home to the UK. I just really hope that whatever happens' the poorer people here up north start to get a better deal.

With love from Ghana,

Em

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