NDC) Government, Under Two Different Presidents, the December Elections Were a Referendum on the Quality of NDC Rule

Ghana

Jennifer C. Boylan

After eight years of a National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, under two different presidents, the December elections were a referendum on the quality of NDC rule. Ghana also experienced the culmination of three long-term calamities: the last year of a three-year electricity crisis, a third year of diminished GDP growth, and the reverberating effects of massive public scandals exposed in the judiciary and other sectors in previous years. To solve its way out of at least the economic disasters, a series of taxes were introduced via a revised income tax law, an energy sector levy on fuel prices, and the removal of subsidies on electricity and water prices. Ghana had signed up to a three-year IMF assistance programme in 2015, which resulted in a rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio to over 70%, a mere five years after Ghana was the fastest growing economy in the world. President John Mahama tried to answer for the economic calamity by seeking out FDI and implementing massive infrastructure and development projects throughout the year. Ultimately, however, New Patriotic Party (NPP) opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo won the December election by a nearly 10% margin. The NPP also gained a majority in Parliament, end- ing the NDC’s eight-year control over the legislature.

Domestic Politics

The 7th presidential elections of Ghana’s Fourth Republic were held on 7 December, with incumbent President John Mahama (NDC) again facing Nana Akufo-Addo (NPP). Mahama had first risen to power in July 2012 from the vice presidency after then-president Atta Mills (NDC) died in office. Mahama then won the December 2012 presidential election, and the 2016 elections were thus tantamount to an assessment of the NDC’s past eight years in government under two presidents. In recent years, Mahama’s government had been plagued by massive public scandals involving the judiciary and other sectors. Active civil society pressure groups, such as OccupyGhana, Citizen Ghana and the Let My Voice Count (LMVC) alliance, arose and helped to make voters aware more than ever before of allegations of corruption and government failings. Allegations of corruption continued, and the criticisms hurled at the government travelled all the way up to the president. For example, when it was revealed in June that Mahama had received a vehicle estimated to cost $ 60,000 from a Burkinabe contractor who had recently been awarded two government contracts worth over GH¢ (cedi) 100 m, the public reaction was forceful. Similarly, in the con- text of a particularly tense election year, two NDC supporters and a talk-show host on ‘MontieFM’, thereafter dubbed the Montie3, threatened Supreme Court judges, including the Chief Justice, with violence and rape in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Electoral Commission in some key cases. The three were sentenced to four months in jail, but only spent one month behind bars after Mahama controversially pardoned their offences. Finally, on 20 November, a claim was made by the NPP that Mahama and his brother had attempted to bribe NPP Northern Regional Chairman Bugri Naabu to leave the NPP for the NDC. Though such proposals are made before every election, this allegation of corruption against the NDC resonated with the public and the NPP used the story to portray the government as desperate to win a losing campaign. This running corruption motif went on to impact the Electoral Commission (EC), which was already facing a credibility deficit in the aftermath of the 2013 Supreme Court case challenging the results of the 2012 election. In 2015, Charlotte Osei of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) became the EC chairperson after Kwadwo Afari-Gyan’s retirement. There was immediate speculation that Osei would be biased towards the ruling party, not least because the NCCE, which now provided crucial voter education services, had once been an agency staffed with NDC party officials under former president J.J. Rawlings. The organisation of the elections got off on the wrong foot when the EC requested GH¢ 1.3 bn to implement significant reforms for the upcoming elections, but Parliament only approved GH¢ 825 m (about $ 214 m). One particularly under- funded area was generating citizen awareness about important reforms the EC had