Commentary: Rigging An Election Is Harder Than You Think

The NPP have a tendency to make grandiose, unachievable statements just to bolster their electoral chances. They just happen to be more grandiose and less achievable, because they have learned that there's little downside to doing so. Of course, Ghana isn't suffering and it is impossible for the NPP to bring wealth to all Ghanaians but Nana Addo keeps saying it, and people keep liking him for saying it.

After Nana Akufo Addo lost in 2012, he complained bitterly that the election was a total sham and a travesty. It's worth keeping that in mind when we consider his party's argument ie. they are worried the results of the December election will be rigged.

We explored the sketchy, disconcerting politics of this argument on Monday, noting very well that it plays perfectly into Nana's me-against-the-system rhetoric. But it's worth establishing another aspect of it: It's simply not feasible.

Let's work backward. In order to rig the election, you need to win the support of nearly 500 electoral officers. When you're going to rig the vote, you need to do it in a number of places at once which even increases the risk, complexity and the number of people involved.

You need to be able to predict the results in every district, or you need to rig votes across a broad geography. If you are loading the dice in every region, you need a lot more people. You need people to coordinate those people. We're talking about a cast of hundreds, all of whom would have to get away with the conspiracy undetected. That's far harder than it seems at first blush.

It's possible that Nana Addo sincerely thinks that the results of the December election are at risk from some coordinated effort to throw the vote. And it's theoretically possible that it could happen, just as it is theoretically possible that Nana Addo will make all Ghanaians rich.But it's pretty obvious that neither will happen and that pretending each might is valuable to Nana Akufo Addo.