Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Ghana elections 2012 : List and profile of Presidential candidates and running mates

PROFILE OF 2012 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES AND THEIR RUNNING CANDIDATES

NAME OF PREZ. CANDIDATE ( PARTY)	VOTER ID. NO.	SEX	RELIGION	DATE OF BIRTH	HOMETOWN/ REGION	HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION	INSTITUTION	PRESENT/LAST EMPLOYER	POSITION	PROFESSION	MARITAL STATUS
JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA (NDC)	6383003305	M	CHRISTIAN	29/11/58	BOLE NORTHERN	POST GRADUATE DEGREE	UNIVERSITY OF GHANA	GOVERNMENT OF GHANA	PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF GHANA	COMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA	MARRIED
DR. HENRY HERBERT LARTEY (GCPP)	1740008352	M	CHRISTIAN	5/02/54	OSU GREATER ACCRA	MBA ECONOMICS AND FINANCE	UNIVERSITY OF BATH, UK.	SELF EMPLOYED	EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR	FINANCE, AGRICULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE	SINGLE
NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO (NPP)	2635019850	M	CHRISTIAN	29/03/44	KYEBI EASTERN REG.	B.SC. ECON	UNIVERSITY OF GHANA	GOVERNMENT OF GHANA	MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS	LEGAL PRACTITIONER	MARRIED
PAPA KWESI NDUOM (PPP)	5045000675	M	CATHOLIC	15/02/53	ELMINA CENTRAL REG.	PHD	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN	FIRST NATIONAL SAVINGS & LOANS COMPANY	CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER	MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT	MARRIED
AKWASI ADDAI ODIKE (UFP)	5276020913	M	CHRISTIAN	13/09/64	ADWUMAKASE-KESE ASHANTI REG.	'O' LEVEL	ADUMAN SECONDARY SCHOOL	ODIKE VENTURES	CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER	BUSINESSMAN	MARRIED
AYARIGA HASSAN (PNC)	7500020784	M	MOSLEM	4/09/72	BAWKU UPPER EAST REG.	EX. MASTERS IN GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP	GRADUATE SCH. OF GOV. & LEADERSHIP	CLEAN UP GH. LTD.	MANAGING DIRECTOR	ACCOUNTANCY	MARRIED
MICHAEL ABU SAKARA FOSTER ( CPP)	9759006290	M	CHRISTIAN	15/08/58	MANKUNA NORTHERN REG.	DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY	UNIVERSITY OF READING, UK.	EXECUTIVE	EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR	AGRONOMIST	MARRIED
JACOB OSEI YEBOAH (INDP)	1583029457	M	CHRISTIAN	28/10/68	ATONSU-NSUTA	MBA	WARWICK UNIVERSITY, UK.	VITALSOURCE LTD.	DIRECTOR WEST AFRICA	ENGINEERING CONSULTING SERVICES	MARRIED

R & M Dept, EC. 2012

PROFILE OF 2012 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

RUNNING MATES

NAME OF RUNNING MATE ( PARTY)	VOTER ID. NO.	SEX	AGE	POLLING SATION CODE	CURRENT RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS	OCCUPATION
KWESI BEKOE AMISSAH-ARTHUR (NDC)	1908013723	M	61	C100515	9 SWITCHBACK RD., CANTONMENTS	ECONOMIST
JOHN AMEKAH (GCPP)	2245011933	M	60	C011202	HEADTEACHER'S BUNGALOW – NEW GBAWE SCHOOL.	RETIRED EDUCATIONIST
DR. MAHAMADU BAWUMIA (NPP)	3027018013	M	49	H230401	NO. 10 6^TH ESTATE ROAD, KANDA, ACCRA.	ECONOMIST
EVA LOKKO (PPP)	3918047741	F	59	C132809	HNO. J3/3 NTHC ESTATES, LASHIBI, COMM.14, TEMA.	C.E.O. TOTALLY YOUTH
FRED OSEI AGYEN (UFP)	3181010731	M	47	A022201	A A181	AGRICULTURIST
HELEN SANORITA DZATUGBE MATREVI (PNC)	5657035621	F	42	C082408	23 CYCAS ST. DANSOMAN	BILINGUAL TRANSLATOR
NANA AKOSUA FRIMPOMAA (CPP)	1791020652	F	56	C061613	19 HIGH TENSION MENPEASEM, EAST LEGON	SOCIAL ACTIVIST
KELVIN NII TACKIE (INDP)	1242017216	M	41	C160807	HOUSE NO.2 MARKET ST., ADENTA	BUSINESS EXECUTIVE

source : http://ec.gov.gh/page.php?page=495&section=45&typ=1

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Do not be in the dark; connect with Ghana Elections 2012 timely authoritative comprehensive coverage

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Ghana Elections -Justin Beiber and election fever…

#Egypt was the most popular Twitter hashtag in 2011, edging out other less revolutionary contenders like #JustinBeiber. 'The power of we' is the theme of today's Blog Action Day, and although 'beliebers' might not necessarily agree, there could hardly be a more powerful example of the power of we than the thousands of people brought together (often through social media) across the Middle East and North Africa to hold their governments to account and demand democratic change. My last post looked at Ghana's strong democratic tradition, and in this one I'm going to look at how DFID is supporting social media and technology as positive forces in the upcoming December elections in Ghana.

After violence broke out following the 2007 Kenyan election, a group of Kenyan bloggers and activists rapidly put together a website, Ushahidi (meaning testimony in Swahili), which would allow Kenyans to submit reports on violent incidents breaking out across the country. Collating information that was submitted on mobile phones and through the internet, crowdsourcing and mapping it out across the country. Ushahidi could create a more up-to-date and accurate picture of what was happening on the ground than the media or security services could manage.

Since then the technology has been used across the world from elections in Nigeria to the tsunami in Japan, and through STAR Ghana UK aid is supporting Ghana Votes a website which will use the Ushahidi platform to monitor Ghana's election in December.

In a country of 25 million people but only 250,000 telephone lines and 50,000 fixed broadband subscribers (World Bank 2010), mobile phones are the primary means of communication for many, and particularly for young, politically engaged Ghanaians, social media is a crucial part of that. In the run up to the elections, and on the day itself, trained journalists and representatives from civil society will report back to Ghana Votes from across the country on everything from the length of queues at polling stations to alleged incidents of hate speech. Members of the public can also text in for free (or send in audio or video), and a team of volunteers will go through all the reports, assessing their veracity, comparing their reports with those from journalists and the security services, and plotting the incidents across a map of Ghana.

Millions of Ghanaians will be able to track online in real time exactly what is happening across the country. If there are allegations of vote rigging or ballot box stuffing, Ghana Votes will mean people are aware of them, and can press for action. As well as being used to track any possible problems with the election in Ghana, the information provided can also be used by journalists in writing stories, by civil society for advocacy, and after the election academics and researchers will access it.

Ghana Votes is not a political project, but by giving people information to make decisions for themselves, it underlines the credibility and transparency of the election process for Ghanaians. Ultimately, the power of technology like Ghana Votes is that it democratizes information. Citizens can be involved in monitoring elections themselves, and at a glance can find out exactly what is happening where. Perception is crucial - the moment a democratic election is not perceived to be fair is the moment it fails, and so the transparency that platforms like Ushahidi can provide is crucial.

Next month DFID is co-hosting an exciting conference, Open Up! - together with the Omidyar Foundation and Wired Magazine - where entrepreneurs, government and civil society will come together to galvanise action in the fast-growing field of open government. It will show how web and mobile technologies can drive more engagement of citizens in government and showcase entrepreneurs' innovations and experiences from around the world.

Ghana Decides is another online project supported by DFID through STAR Ghana which uses social media as a tool for promoting democracy and accountability. It launched a social media campaign called "#Iregistered" earlier this year encouraging Ghanaians to take part in the biometric voter registration exercise and asking them to report back on their experiences. Its website hosts a series of election related blogs and it will launch a further campaign encouraging people to vote on election day itself.

Social media and technology are not, of course, an unmitigated source for good in promoting democracy and open societies. As much as media reports point towards anecdotal evidence from the Arab spring of the democraticising power of Facebook and Twitter, at the same time terrorist groups like Al Shabab and Boko Haram were using them to recruit new members – as well as to empower and inform, these channels can be used to radicalise, exclude and enrage.

Whilst social media might be able to direct public attention towards crucial political events one minute, it can rapidly change direction the next. For example, although #Egypt might have edged out #JustinBeiber, blog and newspaper coverage of the Iranian 'Green Revolution' dropped dramatically after the death of Michael Jackson. Likewise, whilst social media campaigns like Kony 2012 can succeed in drawing millions of people's attentions towards issues, they can risk manipulating the facts, simplifying complex issues, and their 'awareness raising' can fail to actually move people from talk to action.

There are of course, therefore, limits to how far projects like Ghana Votes and Ghana Decides can reach. Only something like 10-15% of Ghanaians use the internet, of the 18 phone subscriptions (World Bank 2010) only around a third are actually used for text messaging anyway (Afrobarometer Ghana 2012). The main way most Ghanaians gain information is still by radio, so a platform like Ghana Votes which is online, and in English rather than a local language, is not going to be accessible to large numbers of the population. However, the project is looking to address some of these issues by instituting a telephone number people can call for free to report incidents, for example, and providing this in a number of different local languages.

Ultimately, however, projects like Ghana Votes aren't seeking to replace traditional forms of political engagement or media, but rather both to amplify and augment them, to channel messages, and have a bridging function in bringing information to wider audiences. If openness, transparency and access to information are important to democracy, then social media platforms like Ushahidi must be a good thing. Social media cannot create democracy, or cause protests, but it can spread information.

The application of platforms like Ushahidi is not of course limited to elections. In Ghana the team behind Ghana Votes is also thinking about a project after the elections, using social media at a local level to allow citizens to track district level assemblies' delivery on their plans, for example. The kind of accountability this provides could help fill a real gap.

Afrobarometer is a survey that tracks citizens' opinions on democracy and governance in a range of African countries (it is partly funded by DFID - look out for a post on this in the future). The latest results from Ghana show the real demand for the kind of information and mobilisation that projects like Ghana Votes can provide. The survey shows, for example, that only 38% of Ghanaians have joined with other citizens to raise an issue in the past year. However, another 37% would have done so, but did not have the chance. Tools like Ghana Votes can give people this chance by providing them with the information they need to hold authorities accountable.

It wasn't Facebook or Twitter that caused the Arab Spring, and they won't change the course of the elections in Ghana, but they can help give people the information and the means to come together and hold their governments to account - that really is the power of we.

Ghana Elections 2012 : Jangbeeshi Mobile App

Jangbeeshi Mobile App

Description

Jangbeeshi is a mobile app for Ghanaian citizens to crowdsource Election data from the polling stations during the 2012 Elections.

This app was developed for African Election Project.

Jangbeeshi app makes crowdsourcing of election data and monitoring as easy as a-b-c.
Download the appropriate version for your phones. Symbian,Java, Blackberry, Android will be supported soon.
Install the Jangbeeshi on your phone.
Run the app. The first time it will ask for you to setup your profile.
On successful completion of profile, the app's full menu would be available
To create an election report, click on the REPORT menu.
To report any suspicious activity or an election anomaly, click on the EMERGENCY menu and click on the appropriate button of the relevant agency you wish to contact
To share and inform your friends and network of the Jangbeeshiapp, click on the SHARE menu to share via SMS, Facebook, Twitter or Email.
For more information on the features of the app, click on theHELP menu.