Ghana attained independence in 1957. From 1992, when a new constitution came into force and established a new democratic framework for governing the country, elections have been organized every four years to choose the governing elites. The essays in this volume are about those elections because elections give meaning to the role of citizens in democratic governance. The chapters depart from the study of formal structures by which the electorate choose their representatives. They evaluate the institutional forms that representation take in the Ghanaian context, and study elections outside the specific institutional forms that according to democratic theory are necessary for arriving at the nature of the relationships that are formed between the voters and their representatives and the nature and quality of their contribution to the democratic process.
Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 3.00, , course: Msc Defence and International Politics, language: English, abstract: This study examines the causes of electoral conflicts in Ghana and Africa, and the role and challenges of the National Peace Council in resolving election-related conflicts. In many African countries, both the economic and political authorities are confiscated and held in the hands of some corrupt leaders who through the use of force control the destiny of their countries. Since the adoption of multiparty systems in some African countries, most elections have been tarnished by violence and by political antagonists who continue to question not only the fairness and the transparency of elections but also the validity of the electoral systems of their countries. Ghana’s elections for some time now have become violent resulting in disputes. A typical case of this situation was the 2012 elections which ended up in the Supreme Court as a dispute. In all of these conflicts, the role of the National Peace Council cannot be over-emphasized. The Council played an important role before, during and after elections. This contributed in the peace that the Ghana experienced during and after elections. In the light of the key role of the Council played in ensuring peace before, during and after elections, there are a number of challenges that confronted the Council. This study examines the specific role played by the National Peace Council (NPC) in ensuring peace in elections. The study discussed the challenges that affected the work of the Council such as limited funding to initiate activities and inadequate staff to help carry out its functions. The methodology adopted in this study is the qualitative case study approach which enabled the study to analyze the findings by relying mostly on secondary data to make its findings. Literatures from secondary data were reviewed to answer research questions. The findings of this study confirm that, the role played by the National Peace Council (NPC) yielded positive results in ensuring the peace of the country throughout the electoral period which other Africa countries can emulate to prevent election-related conflicts.
A study of elections that takes into consideration the environmental factors that affect the choices made by the voter promises to further give an insight into the nature of the contribution of the electorate, if any, to the policy process. [...] In all these instances, the exception being the 1992 elections, both foreign and local observers underscored the democratic nature of the elections on the basis of formal attributes such as transparency in electoral management, the extent of external interference in the citizens' exercise of their franchise - for example, the incidence of voter intimidation and obstruction during voting; the enjoy. [...] Iddi uses the choice of a presidential running mate in the 2008 elections to test the claim that the electorate are more likely to vote for a party that has a member of their ethnic group on the presidential ticket or that the electorate vote on the basis of clientelism. [...] The contending elite factions in the transition process take advantage of the weakness of governance institutions to drag out the process almost indefinitely, and thereby create uncertainty about the future of the political contest. [...] The weakness of governance institutions benefits the political elite as a whole; therefore no faction of the political class has the incentive to strengthen the institutions of the democratic state.
"This book explores issues at the intersection of communication and African electoral politics, taking Ghana's 2020 general election as a focus of investigation. This interdisciplinary volume redresses gaps in the literature by highlighting the relevance of language and communication to electoral politics in Sub-Saharan Africa in the period of a global pandemic. The collection accounts for local influences on election discourse and illustrates how the specific context within which such discourse is enacted informs the linguistic, multimodal and technological choices of sociopolitical actors. The non-Western perspective it adopts extends work on political communication in a context underexplored in the literature and contributes to ongoing critical conversations on the decolonial and postcolonial aspects of communication studies. Drawing on a variety of data, including political speeches, political cartoons, election campaigns and social media posts, the volume not only addresses the dearth of scholarly work on African political communication, but also demonstrates the complexity of such scholarship and its importance to a comprehensive understanding of contemporary research on language and politics. This book enriches academic and public discussions on the future of democracy across the globe from a linguistic or communication perspective, expands scholarly work on African rhetoric and underscores the importance of engaging with diverse knowledge systems, especially non-Western epistemologies."--
The people of Ghana are gearing themselves up for general elections in December 2 008. Election 2 008 would be a historic fifth consecutive national poll since the start of the current constitutional democratic dispensation in 1 992. The transitional presidential election of November 1 992 was highly disputed by the opposition parties leading to their boycott of the subsequent parliamentary poll that December. The acrimony no doubt had arisen from the fact that the outgoing military regime that had metamorphosed into a political party to contest that election was perceived to have rigged elections. It was from such shaky foundation that Ghana's current dispensation has blossomed. The subsequent elections (1996, 2 004, and 2 004) have been more peaceful and generally free and fair. In 2 000, there was a peaceful alternation of power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). Ghana's electoral successes have made it a paragon of good governance and peaceful coexistence in the West African sub-region which over the last decade and half has been better known for a spiral of violent conflict (Frempong 2006: 157).
Political marketing is part and parcel of political life. Politicians, government and council departments have incorporate marketing in their pursuit of political goals. They are aware when deciding on policies and service deliverances; understand people they serve and seek votes from them and thus create new segments to target and creation of the political brand to develop an attractive vision. The objectives of this study are to examine voters` behaviour, the role of loyalty, trust, and voting intention in selecting political leaders in Ghana. Data gathered from 520 eligible voters who have voted at least two times. Structural Equation Modeling Smart PLS was employed generate the findings. The outcome revealed that, candidate personality, epistemic value, contingency situation and political issues have a positive and significant influence on voting intention. However the social imagery had no effect on voting intention from the voters` perspectives. Voters` loyalty and trust moderates voting intention on the aggregate level. This finding suggested that political issues engagement with voter audience need to be revisited through civic education. Given the importance that democratic societies placed on citizens’ participation in an electoral process. Incorporating their views, opinions and feelings on trust and loyalty to a party on their voting intention will offers an empirical dimension to the evaluation of voters` behaviour and also help the leadership of the various political parties in Ghana in their quest to develop appropriate strategies with the so aim of winning election. As marketers do to win their customers against their competitors.
Ghana's 2004 elections were another milestone in the country's transition to a mature democracy. The essays in this volume cover about 50 constituencies studied during the 2004 elections. They assess on the bases of evidence from each set of constituencies the quality of democratic governance, focusing on key issues such as political participation, the dynamics of political choice, the electoral system as well as the challenges and prospects of democracy. Some of the major conclusions are that few Ghanaians are registered party members though they take active part in other political activities, electoral politics may be captured by a few wealthy individuals and groups if the issue of party financing is not addressed dispassionately and promptly; local/community factor and concerns are the greatest influence on voters choices; factors such as ethnicity do not have a decisive influence on voting behavior even where they appear visibly powerful in electoral politics. Above all Ghanaians appreciate the value of competitive elections.
"This is a Ph.D. dissertation. Although most countries south of the Sahara introduced multiparty systems more than a decade ago, much remains to be understood about the political parties active within these systems. General statements about African parties are common, but tend to lack support from systematic research. Among the least studied areas is African party organization - including such issues as how parties function and who decides what. One useful way of studying the power dynamics within political parties is to analyze how parliamentary candidates are selected. While a common theme in party research in established democracies, this is the first systematic study of the subject in Africa. This book analyzes the selection system used in recent elections in 31 parties in 17 African countries, while a closer study of Ghana offers more detailed information. It is found that the selection process in many political parties is significantly more decentralized than general theories about African parties would suggest. In sharp contrast to arguments about the stability of African elites, incumbent Members of Parliament are often very vulnerable to challenges from other aspirants in their parties. It is argued that the logic of clientelism plays an important role in explaining these findings."
