A N E P W WEST AFRICA NETWORK FOR PEACEBUILDING B u e i c ld a in e g r P Re fo NOVEMBER 27, 2008 lationships GHANA DECEMBER 2008 ELECTIONS IN GHANA: STAKES, CHALLENGES & PERSPECTIVES In recognition of the role and achievements of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in Africa, particularly in West Africa, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations at its substantive session of 2006 granted WANEP Special Consultative Status to the UN. WANEP is therefore mandated to designate official representatives to the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna to further its advocacy and outreach strategies for peace and human security. 1. INTRODUCTION general anticipation is that, past glory economic issues that may potentially should set the stage for widening present or likely be exploited for electoral In ten days Ghanaians would be going to and future democratic platforms that purposes. the polls to choose members of must ensure that the new polls should be III.Strengths (reasons for hope) of the parliament and a new President. The better than the previous. Nothing should Ghanaian system: Despite the campaign euphoria and enthusiasm is be taken for granted. It is in the light of this challenges, systems have evolved heightening as the political and media great expectation and hope that WANEP some shock absorbers and institutional landscape is rife with slogans, posters and envisaged this briefing. structures capable of arresting the v o t e r e n t i c i n g m e s s a g e s . fears and threats to peaceful elections. Notwithstanding, the heated socio- This policy brief examines and analyzes: This section highlights those strengths political atmosphere has also been I. The critical stakes: the issues at stake as we look up to the December 7, 2008 characterised by sporadic outbreaks of (political context): this is briefly polls in the context of the socio- violence resulting in loss of lives and examined through a flash back into political landscape in Ghana; destruction of property. Given the fact history since independence and the IV.Envisaged scenarios: We would that Ghana's election is so critical not only various political leanings that emerged attempt painting envisaged scenarios for the country's drive towards and though truncated by the years of (good and bad cases) emanating from unperturbed democratic consolidation military coups, the ideologies did not the analysis and realities on ground; but also serves as the hope for Africa's die. Politics today is still very much V. Options for response: This would be in democracy that has backpedalled in influenced and haunted by this past. the form of recommendations to major hitherto progressive countries, the Our analyses are that this past must be stakeholders. All in all, WANEP posits importance of Ghana's election cannot be o v e r c o m e t h r o u g h g e n u i n e that nothing should be taken for overstated. reconciliation so that Ghana can granted even as we strongly admonish continue to lead in its strides towards a that Ghana cannot afford to disappoint Irrespective of the history of its stormy sustainable democratic culture. We Africa. A successful election in Ghana past with memories of military regimes also examine the implications for would redeem an African image that between 1966 to 1969, 1972 to 1979, and Africa. has just been recently soiled in Kenya 1981 to 1992, Ghana has conducted four II. Threats of and/or accelerators of and Zimbabwe, giving the false regularly scheduled multi-party elections violence: This section examines the impression that democracy is (1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004) - and now various incidents and indicators retrograding or cannot work in Africa. heading towards its fifth one in December perceived to constitute a threat to 20081. Notwithstanding the country's four peaceful elections. Some of the issues consistent electoral track records, the are imbedded on cultural and socio- 1 E.Gyimah-Boadi, Afrobarometre Briefing Paper No. 51. June 2008: (Popular Attitudes To Democracy in Ghana, 2008). West Africa Early Warning & EARLY RESPONSE Network (WARN) The West Africa Early Warning Network Community of West African States (ECOWAS) the framework of capacity building in (WARN) is an integral part of the West Africa sub-region including Cameroon and Chad. Our Conflict Prevention. One of the goals of this Preventive Peacebuilding Program co- focus was initially the Mano River Basin agreement is to interface WARN with the ordinated by the West Africa Network for countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and ECOWAS Early Warning Systems to optimize Peacebuilding (WANEP). Through its WARN Côte d'Ivoire. We have since expanded to early warning and conflict prevention in Program, WANEP is setting the stage for a cover the entire West Africa sub-region. West Africa. In view of this development, civil society-based early warning and WANEP has been operating a liaison office response network in Africa with emphasis on Since 2002, WANEP entered into an located at the ECOWAS Commission in human security. agreement with ECOWAS through the signing Abuja, Nigeria since April 2003. of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in WARN covers the entire Economic Copy Right: WANEP© 2008 GHANA DECEMBER 2008 ELECTIONS IN GHANA: STAKES, CHALLENGES & PERSPECTIVES 2. THE CRITICAL STAKES OF THE discourse. Nonetheless, the lower prospect comments by grassroots party loyalists with DECEMBER 2008 GHANA ELECTIONS for the new generation of Nkrumahists to outbreaks of violence as the election draws compete at the same political platform with closer. The intense mutual suspicion and This section attempts to identity what it is the Danquah-Busiaists traditions today has antipathy existing between the key political that makes this election different from past weakened the hitherto competitive parties requires a concerted effort by all elections, delving into issues that serve as tensions between them. Interestingly, the actors to ensure violence free polls. motivating factors driving the electorate contemporary bitter political rivalry and the to be elected. between the Rawlingsists (NDC) and 2.2. Consolidation versus Change Danquah-Busiaists (NPP) is a reminiscence The central competing issue would be 2.1. Political History and the Ideological of the earlier post-independent days pitched on consolidating democratic gains Divide between the predecessors of the by ensuring 'continuity' of eight years of Ghana enjoys the patriotic pride for being Nkrumahists and Danquah-Busiaists John Kufour's legacy for the ruling NPP the first black African Nation to gain traditions. Since the transformation from candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Adda independence, as well as an inspirational the military to democratic dispensation of and advocates of 'change' led by the John role model to other African states for John Jerry Rawlings from Provisional Atta Mills of the NDC (main opposition) and pioneering the hopes and aspirations of the National Defence Council (PNDC) to a Paa Kwesi Ndoum of the CPP and Edward Pan-African ideology injected in African National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Mahama of the PNC. While the scholars and political activists during the 1993, the NDC has continually been consolidationists always have an edge due independence struggle.2 This well meaning troubled for the perceived past human to the power of incumbency, there is always political philosophy born from the Gold rights records of the former president and a tendency that their actions and inactions Coast instilled a spirit of self-determination, its founder, a factor used by rival parties for in the transiting period may also play which then subsequently paved the way for political advantage against the NDC party. against them. On the other hand, the many African nations to move toward self- In the lead up to the December 2008 proponents of the change message also rule. In spite of its enviable contribution to elections, pro NPP newspapers continue to stand a high chance of winning the minds independence and post-independence refer to human rights abuses of the PNDC and hearts of electorate if their message political history of the continent, the era. The NDC response has been to remind comes at an appropriate time depending country's military-civilian democracy and the electorate of the current serving also on the socio-economic context. In the civilian-civilian democratic transition members of the Government who are context of Ghana, these two broad cannot be narrated without citing members of the NPP who served in the categories are central to the ongoing challenges and pitfalls. PNDC revolutionary government. Likewise, campaign irrespective of the fact that the pro-NDC newspapers also refer to parties have all presented manifestoes The history of participatory democratic incidences of human rights abuses under outlining their programmes and luring governance and the contextual factors that the Presidency of John Kuffour of the NPP promises. determine or influence politically motivated Government. Ghana's past political history violence in Ghana is expressive within the is haunting its present. Even after attempts 2.3. Petro-Politics three most influential political traditions at national reconciliation through a Truth The recent announcement of the discovery and their intense competitions for political and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of oil deposits in commercial quantities that space. These are: the Nkrumahists (CPP), initiated by the Government of the NPP in have put Ghana in the world petroleum the Danquah-Busiaists (NPP), and the which leading Religious figures played map has strong connotations in the Rawlingsists traditions (NDC). Implicitly, active roles, a cursory political observation electoral ball game. The huge petrodollars each tradition is a characteristic of each can highlight the contradictions of a that accrue from the black gold, is leader and the political philosophy they reconciliation effort that has not reconciled undoubtedly influencing the political fanatically believed.