How Ghana’s election can enhance regional democratic relevance
Whatever the eventual outcome of the elections scheduled for December 7, 2024 in Ghana global analysts of West African affairs will pay profound attention to the post-election assessment of how free and fair the exercise actually was. In so doing they will be vigilant in assessing the opinions of members of a very comprehensive and experienced team of observers deployed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
The reason why it is advisable for genuinely concerned analysts to take the viewpoints of the ECOWAS team seriously is because the failure of representative government in its member states poses the most dangerous threat to the continued existence of the institution.
The trajectory of Ghana’s political history ever since its pioneering attainment of independence from British colonialism in 1957 has placed the country at the forefront of West African nation-building perspectives in modern times.
The overthrow of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah by the military in 1966 reversed the nation’s aspiration to build a productive industrial economy which depended on Nkrumah’s visionary concept of governance by the people.
The foundation of this vision led to the establishment of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), an extremely popular organisation which advocated decolonisation and national independence.
Unfortunately, that betrayal of the founding principles of national self-determination has influenced the growth and development of independent Ghana’s system of representative governance.
The foundational party, the CPP, has been unable to thrive as a viable participant in the contemporary Ghanaian political space because over the years since the intervention of military usurpers the issues of political decision-making have been transformed.
Two major parties have evolved as a result of that transformation. Known as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) these parties articulate values and policies that have become symbols of Ghanaian objectives.
These values and objectives have emerged as a consequence of the life experience of the population and the various formulations of leadership that have held power in the decades since Ghana’s example opened the path to African independence.
The West African observers should ensure that the relevance of representative governance gains credibility in the region from the nature and effective conduct of the exercise.
BY LINDSAY BARRETT
