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Independent Polls and Monitors Reassure Ghana Voters
FrontLines - April 2009
Accra, Ghana—Despite a razor-thin margin of victory in recent elections, Ghanaians selected and installed their new president, John Evans Atta Mills, on Jan. 7—it was a peaceful transfer of power rare to the region and due in part to civil election monitors and independent polls supported by USAID.
There was high potential for unrest during the electoral process. Ghanaian election watchers predicted a close and intense contest between the two leading political parties, with the possibility of a third resurgent party doing well
to throw the election into a
run-off. 
A CODEO team member briefing election observers.
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To build confidence in the electoral process and check electoral fraud, USAID supported a coalition of local organizations—the Coalition of Domestic Electoral Observers (CODEO) and the National Democratic Institute—in deploying observers to ensure a strong observer presence at polling stations countrywide. The coalition trained 3,000 people in election observation.
On election days, the coalition stationed observers at randomly selected polling stations to report election activities to CODEO headquarters using cell phones.
For the first time in Ghana, the coalition used independent polls which served as a check and balance to official results and complemented the coalition’s regular domestic election observers.
The poll results of the presidential election were very close, leading to a run-off.
Mills won the run-off by a margin of one-half of 1 percent. The independent poll results mirrored the national electoral body’s polling figures. International observer groups also described the election as free and fair.
The strong observer presence monitored election days and—along with the independent poll—reassured the public and enabled political parties and the electorate to accept the results of the elections.
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