The Election Review Committee, which will be chaired by a Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Adusei Poku, has been commissioned to look into what contributed to the party’s victory in the polls.

[contextly_sidebar id=”7CREIQYlCHFDFEmNvW7ynqpgcNFUSyWx”]The Committee has six weeks to present its report and recommend what steps the party must take to ensure it retains power.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the acting General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, said the mandate of the committee is “to provide a detailed and honest analysis of the 2016 elections countrywide on structures and operations of the party at all levels.”

The committee is also expected to “produce a clear concise, but detailed report to form the basis for the party’s campaign to win in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections and beyond,” Mr. Boadu added.

The Committee will also “provide objective review of the current party relationships and other matters that will come before them as a committee.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Adusei Poku, says a review of the party’s performance is necessary, despite its victory in the 2016 elections.

“In any form of review is an exercise that occurs after an event or process has happened. In this case, it is a post-mortem exercise. We do that because we want to uncover what occurred in order to forestall what will happen or in order to predict what should happen in the future. This will go a long way to assist the NPP to strengthen its position in 2020, so that we can win power and serve the people of Ghana.”

John Mahama became the first incumbent President to lose a re-election bid, to then opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, who made his third attempt at the presidency.

Nana Addo won the December presidential poll with an overwhelming 53.85% of the total valid votes cast, against Mahama’s 44.40%.

Kwesi Botchwey chairs committee to diagnose NDC’s defeat

John Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC), already has a committee in place to look into why the party lost the polls, and what could be done going forward to ensure their return to government.

The committee, which was formed by the NDC’s Functional Executive Committee (NEC), and approved by its Council of Elders, is being chaired by a Former Minister of Finance and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Kwesi Botchwey.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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The EC was responding to a report in the Daily Graphic attributed to a senior official of the Ministry of Finance, who claimed that the Commission had gone beyond its budget.

[contextly_sidebar id=”aabAgkHoDyoaSmAjOXXQGSw4pIQRuF6g”]The Commission, in a statement stated that it had “worked diligently to operate within the budget that had been agreed with the Ministry and the Special Budget Committee of Parliament.”

The EC explained that, a budget of GHc1.139 billion for the elections was agreed and approved by the Ministry of Finance upon the recommendations and with the involvement of the Special Budget Committee of Parliament, before the 2016 Budget was presented to Parliament.

However, the Ministry of Finance submitted a budgetary ceiling of GHc 800 million to Parliament for approval for the elections.

This was followed by the promise and assurance from the Ministry to Parliament and all stakeholders that the rest of the funding was going to be released to the Commission in due course.

Find below the full statement

We wish to announce that the Government has released an amount of Seventy Million Ghana Cedis (GHc70, 000,000.00) to the Electoral Commission as partial fulfilment of the Commission’s financial requirements for the 2016 general elections. This brings the total financial releases from the Ministry of Finance to the Commission to Eight-Hundred and Seventy Million Ghana Cedis (GHc870, 000,000.00), out of a total budget of One Billion, One-Hundred and Thirty-Nine Million, Eight-Hundred and Eighty-Five Thousand, Nine-Hundred and Ninety-One Ghana Cedis (GHc1, 139,885, 991.00).

The budget of GHC1.139 billion Ghana Cedis was agreed and approved by the Ministry of Finance upon the recommendations and with the involvement of the Special Budget Committee of Parliament before the 2016 Budget was presented to the House of Parliament. However, the Ministry submitted a budgetary ceiling of Eight-Hundred Million Ghana Cedis (Ghc800, 000,000.00) to Parliament for approval for the elections in the 2016 Budget. This was followed with the promise and firm assurance from the Ministry, to Parliament and all stakeholders that the rest of the funding will be released to the Commission in due course.

On the basis of this assurance, the Commission worked diligently to operate within the budget that had been agreed with the Ministry and the Special Budget Committee of Parliament. In the light of the foregoing, the recent claim in the Wednesday, January 18, 2017 edition of the Daily Graphic (No.20279) and attributed to a senior official of the Ministry of Finance that the Commission had overrun its 2016 budget is inaccurate.

We would like to assure our vendors, service providers and election officials that the Ministry has by the recent release of the GHc70, 000,000, demonstrated its commitment to honour its promise of meeting the full funding requirements of the Commission for last year’s elections.

We urge our vendors, service providers and election officials to continue to bear with us, as we await the Ministry of Finance to fully honour its promise to release the funds for the payment of their costs and allowances. The Commission appreciates their patience and understanding in this matter.

Thank You

Signed: ERIC KOFI DZAKPASU Head of Communications

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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But the station came third after Akan-speaking stations, Peace FM, and Adom FM, which were named 1st and 2nd respectively. Prior to this yearly rating, the station has consistently performed creditably in GeoPoll’s quarterly surveys.

In August 2016 for instance, Citi FM emerged Ghana’s topmost English Radio station in GeoPoll’s second quarter survey of radio stations’ performance nationwide.

The station, which celebrated its 12th anniversary on November 5, 2016, has become the preferred choice for many discerning radio listeners, as it remains committed to its mission of building the most influential radio brand, through innovative and quality radio programming.

As Radio and TV continue to be the most popular broadcast media in Africa, GeoPoll has analyzed the top TV and Top Radio Stations across Ghana during 2016.

The GeoPoll Media Measurement service has been examining ratings and audience share for the top stations in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Nigeria to provide media insights into markets where data is scarce.

In 2016, in Ghana alone, GeoPoll conducted 711,783 unique media measurement surveys, averaging nearly 2000 completes per day.

Ghana Radio Ratings 2016:

GeoPoll in its release said it had analyzed the top Radio stations in Ghana at both a national and regional level for 2016.

The chart below shows the average ratings for the top 10 Radio stations across the entire country.

Peace and Adom FM battle for the top station in Ghana, with Peace achieving a slightly higher overall share across the day.

The graph below illustrates radio ratings in both the morning (6-10 AM) and drive (2-6 PM) time brackets.

Radio was also analyzed at the regional level in Ghana. The graphs below show the top 10 radio stations in each region by share:

Ghana TV Ratings 2016:  UTV most watched TV station in 2016

GeoPoll, which also rated the performance of television stations nationally for the year 2016, named UTV as the most watched Ghanaian TV station in 2016.

The chart below shows the average ratings for the top 10 TV stations.

Per the graph above, UTV was the most watched TV station in Ghana in 2016 with a share of nearly 20%.

It was followed closely in second by Adom TV at 16.5% share, and in the third position was TV3 with 15.4% share.

Rounding out the top stations were Joy Prime (10.6%), GH One (8.5%), GTV (8.5%), Joy News (7.1%), Metro TV (5.9%), and Viasat One (5.7%).

UTV before now, had consistently topped the quarterly ratings by GeoPoll.

GIBA partners GeoPoll for performance data

GeoPoll, one the largest provider of overnight audience measurement data in Africa, in 2015, partnered with the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), in a move that will allow all GIBA members to access GeoPoll and Kantar Media’s industry-leading audience data.

Kantar-GeoPoll Media Measurement is the only provider of next-day ratings for TV, radio, and print in Ghana and this partnership will give all GIBA members access to KGMM’s quarterly ratings data.

The partnership means that, media organizations which hitherto relied on data from various data organizations will now be using data from GeoPoll.

Such data is often the basis for advertisers’ preference on which media platform to advertise their products and services.

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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Citi FM Ghana’s top English radio station in 2016 – GeoPoll appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Hundreds of excited and enthusiastic children between the ages of 2-17 years, were taught the word of God, fed and taken through several games at the 3rd edition of the event.

The rally, which is in its third year, is held every last Saturday of December.

This year’s event attracted over 1, 500 kids, as against the 2015 figure of eight hundred and thirteen (813) children.

With 130 volunteers for the 2016 edition, majority of the children, assembled from the community to join the kids of the church, were adequately fed, taught the word of God, as the messages focused on the birth of Jesus Christ.

They were taking through a time of praises, praise and worship, as they also memorized some Bible verses, and performed the ‘junko’ dance – a choreographic performance made out of Biblical stories.

The kids were also presented with Christmas hats, cards, T-shirts, toffees and other gifts.

They were later engaged in several fun games such as football, swimming, basketball, volley-ball, face painting, skipping rope, seesaw, bouncy castle and trampoline amongst others.

A Pastoral Assistant at the Horeb Temple ICGC, Gilbert Quarcoopome, told citifmonline.com that the church uses the event as an evangelism tool to reach out to the children in the community and draw them to Christ.

According to him, this year’s event was an improvement over the previous years in terms of numbers. He said there were children who came from other parts of Accra to participate.

“Our first target was to bring Christ to the community through this programme. We targeted about 1,500 and indeed we had over 1,500 coming and they were all fed, they had gifts and they’ve had a lot of fun; and I think they have enjoyed themselves. We’ve given them the word of God; they memorized Bible verses, and they’ve had a lot of fun with the word of God; and I believe that they are not going home the same as they came.”

He said the next event in 2017, will target over 2,000 kids.

He also expressed the hope that the event will grow to become a larger national event that will reach out to many more kids in the years to come.

“Moving forward next year, we hope to make this bigger and much better; by targeting over 2000 kids. This year we were blessed from having kids from Laterbiokoshie who came from a different church; and that tells us that this is a tool that can be used to win souls for the Kingdom of God.”

He explained that children are important to the Kingdom of God and to nation building, explaining that children form the next generation, and hence efforts must be made to hone their skills and talent, whiles giving them the platform to express themselves and be confident.

“This is so important because you remember that when children were coming to Jesus they were turning them away, but Jesus stopped that from happening. Children are so important and I keep saying that children are the next generation; we because they are the next generation, we need to give them all the necessary skills and empowerment for them to takeover this nation and the kingdom of God to the next level so it’s very important. And in our culture, children aren’t supposed to be heard, they are not given the platform of expression; and this offers them that platform to express themselves, learn the word of God and have fun.”

The Pastoral Assistant urged churches to focus more on nurturing Children in God’s word in order to bring out a new generation of morally upright youth to save the country from corruption and other ills that threaten its development.

According to him, that is the only way to get Ghana on track since the current generation have become adamant to transformation. He says the nation faces a huge risk if much focus is not paid to the right upbringing of children.

The rally, which cost the church about Ghc30, 000, was sponsored by members of the church.

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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Hundreds attend ICGC Horeb Temple’s 2016 Jesus Kids rally [Photos] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the President, his administration has so far inaugurated some 32 schools nationwide, as part of his promise to build 200 hundred Senior High Schools in his first term.

Addressing the chiefs and people of Sandema in the Builsa traditional area of the Upper East Region, President Mahama appealed to the people to vote come December 7 to enable him continue these projects.

In his address, President Mahama said during his administration, the education sector has seen phenomenal investment as “every secondary school in this country has seen some development in infrastructure.”

“Aside from that, we said we would build 200 new secondary schools, 32 have admitted students this academic year. By the end of the year, 70 will be completely ready and as promised in our manifesto, in my second term, I will complete all the 200 secondary schools,” he added.

“This will provide the opportunity every year to admit another 150,000 young people in secondary schools that otherwise would not have had the secondary education because their education would have ended at the JHS level since there are no vacancies in our secondary schools.”

President Mahama, as part of his campaign tour of the Upper East Region, also paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the area, Nab Azaksuik Azantilow.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post 70 Community Day SHSs will be completed by end of 2016 – Mahama appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Addressing NPP supporters at Awutu Bontrase  in the Central Region during a mini rally of the party’s parliamentary candidate for the Awutu Senya constituency [George Andah], Mrs. Bawumia said the party has been guided by developments that took place during the 2012 elections, and has made a resolution to be more vigilant during this year [2016] polls.

“In 2012, we all saw what happened on the television. In some constituencies the results were inflated. When it was 27; then they will add zero and say 270. If we had been more vigilant, they would not have gotten the opportunity to rig the elections. But this election, we will be more vigilant.We will not allow them to rig the election.”

Vote NDC out of power 

She also charged residents in the area to vote against the NDC government in the upcoming elections.

According to her, the NDC government does not deserve another term since it has failed to provide basic amenities including water and electricity to residents in the constituency.

“I just want to ask you a few questions. Are you able to pay your light bills? Are you able to pay your water bills? Are you able to pay your children’s fees. Are you comfortable?Are there jobs for the youth? We are really suffering” she stated.

“If we have given the NDC eight years to govern the country and work hard to help the country, and the eight years is up and we are still suffering and they ask us to let them continue governing us, should we allow them? Will we give them an opportunity to continue putting us through this hardship and suffering?We are very tired and this election is our future. I know all of you have gathered here and are willing to vote for Nana Addo and George Andah to go to Parliament to bring development to this constituency.”

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post We will resist rigging in this election – Samira Bawumia appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to Nana Akufo-Addo, ever since President Mahama assumed office, Ghana’s economy has systematically shrunk, resulting in high levels of unemployment, rising costs of living, widespread hardship and suffering, and the creation of a future of hopelessness for the millions of Ghanaian youth.

To this end, the NPP flagbearer is appealing to students to vote for him and the NPP in this year’s elections, in order to secure their collective future.

Nana Akufo-Addo made this known on Thursday, October 13, when he addressed thousands of students at the Pentecost University College, as part of his tour of the Anyaa Sowutuom constituency.

“Usually, when people come to speak to you (students), they talk about the future. This is because you are the future. But, I am going to say something a bit different. Every year, since John Dramani Mahama became President, our economy has shrunk, and this year, we are going to have the slowest growth of our economy for 22 years,” the NPP flagbearer said.

The sad state Ghana currently finds herself in, according to Akufo-Addo, implies “that your ability to walk out of here and get a job is being compromised right now. What I am trying to leave with you is that, four more years of John Dramani Mahama will mean that you have no future to look up to.”

Thus, the NPP flagbearer stressed that, “the responsibility for you (students) is not about tomorrow, it is about today. That, together, all of us will make sure that the threat to our future that Mahama represents is removed in December, once and for all, so we can return our country onto the path of progress and prosperity.”

He continued, “I am saying to you, (this election) is about your future. It is about now. If we continue on the path we are on now, let me repeat it, there will be no future for you to inherit. So the task is a simple one. In peace and in dignity, let’s put Mahama aside, let’s bring Akufo-Addo and let’s chart a new direction for Ghana.”

The NPP flagbearer assured that, the direction he is offering the people of Ghana is one which will “concentrate on growing our economy and making sure there are more and more jobs available for the young people of our country. That is the vision which we are working for our country, and it is what we will do when we are in office.”

He thus urged all students across the country not to stay at home on December 7, stating that “that day, 7th of December, is indeed about you and your future.”

Whilst in the constituency, Nana Akufo-Addo also visited the Alhaji Station, Sowutuom Last Stop, Anyaa Market and the Ablekuma Tipper Station.
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By: NPP Communications//Ghana

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Through a Parliamentary primary re-run on Saturday September 17 at the Karaga local authority primary school, he secured 208 out of the total votes cast.

His other contenders, a former District Chief Executive for the area, Baba Wahab, polled 168, whiles Imam Basha Firdaus polled 28 votes.

The re-run was necessitated when the former candidate, Ibrahim Basha Shaharawi, stepped down on health grounds.

The voting, supervised and conducted by the Electoral Commission, and witnessed by the NPP’s first Vice Chairman F. F Anto and the party’s Nasara Coordinator, Kamaldeen Abdullah, was generally peaceful.

Sulemana Ibn Saeed thanked the delegates for the confidence reposed in him and promised to wrestle the seat from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) on December 7.

He called for party unity and urged his other contenders to rally behind him to boost his chances of winning the seat.

The Parliamentary re-run which was to be relocated to the Savelugu constituency for security reasons was finally held in Karaga.

Sulemana Ibn Saeed is in race with the NDC’s incumbent Member of Parliament, Alhassan Sualihu Dandawa.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifminline.com/Ghana

The post Sulemana Ibn Saeed elected new NPP candidate for Karaga appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The party’s acting General Secretary, John Boadu picked the forms on behalf of Nana Addo.

This comes hours after President Mahama also sent his party’s Deputy General Secretary,  Koku Anyidoho, to pick up his nomination forms on his behalf.

Aside President Mahama and Nana Addo, four other political parties’  nominees, have so far picked up nomination forms to compete for the presidency.

Kofi Akpaloo of the Independent People’s party (IPP), Madam Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Akwasi Addai Odike of the United Progressive Party (UPP) and Nana Agyenim- Boateng of the United Front Party (UFP) all picked up forms on Tuesday at the Electoral Commission head office in Accra.

Parties lament high filing fees

The Electoral Commission had earlier received a wave of bashing from some political parties for pegging presidential and parliamentary filing fees at GHc50, 000 and GHc10, 000 respectively; an amount they said was too high. Some of the parties including the New Patriotic Party (NPP), had expressed reservations about the amount, saying it would only limit the electioneering process to a privileged few.

EC to consider review of ‘exorbitant’ filing fees

Meanwhile the Electoral Commission (EC) has said it will soon meet to consider whether or not to review the amount. The Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, said the Commission will meet to deliberate on the way forward.

“The commission has taken notice of the concerns and that the commission will meet and decide if there is a possibility of a review and that if there is a review it will be communicated to the political parties,” he added.

Follow the hashtag #GHElections on Social Media for election related stories

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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