Ghana Election Night

On Monday 8 December, more than 250 people gathered at the Augustinus College in Amsterdam to celebrate democracy in Ghana and the impact the 2008 Ghana Elections will have. The program was packed with speeches, music, debates and a live video link with Ghana. There were Ghanaian food and drink specialties for everyone to enjoy.

Knighthood for Hans Eenhoorn

During the event, led by Amma Asante and Farid Tabarki, Hans Eenhoorn received a knighthood for his work for as UN’s Taskforce on Hunger and the Schoolfeeding Inititative Ghana Netherlands (SIGN).

Millenniumgoals, Agriculture and Health Care

During the speeches and debates the World Millennium Development Goals, agriculture and health care we extensively discussed. The audience actively participated in the political debate in which experts in different fields from both Dutch and Ghanaian backgrounds gave their views. Aside from experts there were also members of Ghanaian political parties who provided their perspective. The at times very vocal presence of the audience showed that there are very strong views within the Ghanaian community in the Netherlands about the political issues in the 2008 campaign.

SIGN

The SIGN platform made a statement about it’s new coördinator. He is open to cooperation and is gaining trust in Ghana and the Netherlands with is transparant and pragmatic approach. Regardless of the election results, SIGN will support the schoolfeeding programme. There is commitment for the coming two years. The ambition is to transfer the SIGN secretariat to Ghanaian partners from 2010.

Elections go to second round

At the end of the evening, a live video link with Ghana was established. Journalist Kent Mensah reported the latest results live from Accra, Ghana’s capital, and answered questions from the audience. The results show that the tense election race is not yet decided. The presidential election must be decided in a second-round vote. The run-off will be between Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party and John Atta Mills of opposition National Democratic Congress. Neither candidates reached the 50% share of the vote needed to score an outright win. The date for the run-off is expected to be on 28 December.