The race to land one of the most prestigious job as an undergraduate University of Ghana student is fast becoming an interesting one.
The last decade of the school’s Student Representative Council (SRC) was marred by growth coupled with many complexities, legal tussles and trends.
Progressing from organising manual elections to relying on online voting software in 2015, 2021 and 2022 remain one remarkable growth.
This growth coupled with other factors are fast depicting a new electoral trend for the University of Ghana’s Student Representative Council (UG SRC).
The past five years SRC elections have yielded four presidential run-offs plus a first time secretarial run-off.
The 2016 UG SRC election went into a runoff when Emmanuel Adu Amofa and Esinam Afi Seade, representing different presidential camps, could not polled the constitutionally mandated 50% + 1 valid votes cast in their respective favour.
Official results of the first round shows that Emmanuel Adu Amofa amassed 2,051 votes whilst Esinam Afi Seade garnered 1960 votes.
The April 28 runoff saw Esinam Afi Seade, who placed second in the first round, winning the presidential election with 3665 votes leaving Emmanuel Adu Amofa with 3206.
The 2018 UG SRC election followed similar dynamics during which, Clement Bofa-Oppong garnered 2,174 votes against his closest contender Sylvester Amoako who had 1834 votes in the first round.
Things turn around in the course of the runoff with Sylvester Amoako amassing a total of 4145 valid votes cast, representing 52.51% to win the presidential election. Clement Bofa-Oppong, however, had 3747 (47.49%) valid votes cast.
The 2021 UG SRC election, arguably the highly litigated poll, had Samuel Amos Ofosu (Nana B) gathering 5760 votes (41.97%) with Prince Asumadu garnering 5102 votes (37.18%) in the first round.
The October 29 runoff election saw Prince Asumadu emerging winner of the race with 7647 votes (51.66%) whilst Samuel Amos-Ofosu lagged behind with 7156 votes (48.34%).
The recent first round of the 2022 UG SRC election produced two runoffs, a presidential and a secretarial.
At the presidential level, Boakye Martin Gyasi and Lincoln Ohene piled up the highest votes of 5,455 (35.8%) whereas Samuel Ackom and Ramzy Fuseini coming second with 3879 votes (25.5%) in the first round.
The failure on the part of all candidates to have obtained the constitutionally mandated 50% + 1 vote pushes this portfolio into another round to decide the ultimate winner.
For the first time, UG SRC will be holding a runoff election for secretarial candidates.
Emmanuella Boakye Yiadom polled a total of 7,156 (47%) whilst Vida Mintah garnered 2,867 (18.8%) in the first round, 2022 UG SRC election.
The past five years of UG SRC elections have drawn an unbroken chain of how first round winners lose in runoff.
The SRC Electoral Commission has set Tuesday November, 8 2022 as the date for both the 2022 presidential and secretarial runoff elections.
Will undergraduate students of the University of Ghana extend the length of the five-year unbroken chain or will they cut it short to set a new historic record?
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Story by: Collins Frimpong | univers.ug.edu.gh
