The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has revealed details of its extensive preparations for the just-ended December 7 elections, including the training of 153,000 individuals to support its electoral operations.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM on Wednesday, December 11, the party’s Director of Elections and IT, Dr Edward Omane Boamah highlighted the scale and depth of the training programme, which included a careful selection process.

“I personally trained all 47 constituency trainers in the Ashanti Region,” he said. “Other members travelled across the country to train others. By the time the national trainers completed the first phase, we had embedded trainers available to address questions and provide additional guidance.”

The training was not just instructional, participants had to write exams with set pass marks. Of the 153,000 initially trained, 87,000 were ultimately selected. However, this led to some challenges in polling station coverage. “Some polling stations had as many as four agents, while others had none,” Dr Omane Boamah explained. “Although 87,000 agents were sufficient on average, distribution gaps persisted.”

Dr Omane Boamah credited the party’s technological advancements for its efficiency in monitoring election processes. He acknowledged Yayra Koku and Atta Boateng, who developed a system used to oversee the elections. The system was deployed before the Assin North by-election and proved effective.

“Initially, we expected to achieve 85% collation by 11:30 pm, but by 7 pm, we knew we had won the elections based on our analytics. By that time, we had collated results from 20,000 polling stations and calculated the variance between Mahama’s and Bawumia’s performances. The data showed a strong trend in our favour.”

The NDC also equipped 300 key officials, including lawyers, with tablets to ensure seamless coordination. Each constituency in Ghana had lawyers aligned with the party on standby to address legal issues.

Dr Omane Boamah credited the success of the party’s election strategy to the collective effort of its constituency and regional executives, polling agents, and ground teams, adding that their readiness ensured effective execution of plans on election day.