Eisa Pre-Election Assessment Mission Report
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Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa EISA PRE-ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT REPUBLIC OF GHANA 07 DECEMBER 2020 EISA PRE-ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT | REPUBLIC OF GHANA | 07 DECEMBER 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations 3 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE 2020 ELECTIONS 4 2.1. Historical background 4 Table 1: Political trends in Ghana 5 Table 2: 2016 Presidential Results 6 Table 3: 2016 Parliamentary Election Results 6 2.2. Political environment: 6 3. THE CONSTITUTIONAL, LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK 7 GOVERNING THE 2020 ELECTIONS 3.1. Legal framework 7 3.2. The Electoral system 8 3.3. Election Management 9 4. KEY FINDINGS ON THE PRE-ELECTION PHASE 9 4.1. Political Dialogue 9 4.2. Voter registration 10 4.3. Political party registration and candidate nomination 10 Table 4: Registered voters 2020 (Registered by EC) 11 4.4. The media 12 4.5. Citizen Election Observation 13 4.6. Gender and minority rights 13 4.7. Civic and voter education 14 4.8. Security 14 4.9. Campaigns 15 4.10. Preparedness of the EMB 15 2 EISA PRE-ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT | REPUBLIC OF GHANA | 07 DECEMBER 2020 List of Abbreviations AU African Union CDD Centre for Democratic Development C.I. Constitutional Instrument CODEO Coalition of Domestic Election Observers CPP Convention People’s Party CSOs Civil Society Organizations ECG Electoral Commission of Ghana ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EISA Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa EOM Election Observation Mission IPAC Inter-Party Advisory Committee MMC Media Monitoring Centre NCCE National Commission for Civic Education NDC National Democratic Congress NDP National Democratic Party NPP New Patriotic Party PAM Pre-election Assessment Mission PNC People’s National Convention PPP Progressive People’s Party WANEP West Africa Network for Peacebuilding NGOs Non-governmental organisations AROs Assistant Returning Officers PVT Parallel Vote Tabulation ROs Returning Officers RPP Registrar of Political Parties 3 EISA PRE-ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT | REPUBLIC OF GHANA | 07 DECEMBER 2020 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY elections, the recent amendments to some of the legislation and regulations, specifically to produce a new Through the implementation of its Enhancing the biometric voter register to address challenges from the Legitimacy and Integrity of Elections in Africa Programme 2012 and 2016 voter registers. The mission also commends and in line with its mission of promoting credible elections, the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) for the efficient citizen participation and strengthening political institutions administrative and logistical preparations ahead of the for sustainable democracy in Africa, the Electoral Institute elections. Particularly, the extra measures put in place for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) deployed a in response to COVID-19. The mission further noted the two-member Pre-Election Assessment Mission (PAM) to adequate use of social media by the Electoral Commission the Republic of Ghana from 09 November-13 November to conduct voter education. However, there is a lack of 2020. collaboration between the Electoral Commission, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), and civil The PAM was tasked with assessing the pre-election and society organisations which tends to result in overlapping political context in Ghana, and to determine whether civic and voter education activities. conditions exist for conducting democratic elections during the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on 07 December 2020. 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE 2020 ELECTIONS The mission also examined the state of preparedness for the Electoral Commission (EC Ghana), political parties, 2.1. Historical background national Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the media, International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) Ghana gained its independence on 06 March 1957 and was and other stakeholders, for the forthcoming elections proclaimed a republic in 1960 with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of and making an overall assessment of the fairness of the the Convention People’s Party as its first Prime Minister. He process. held power until 1966 when he was overthrown through a military coup by Lieutenant General Joseph Ankrah of The EISA PAM’s assessment is based on international the National Liberation Council (NDC). There were several benchmarks for democratic elections provided in the coups’ d’états, and Jerry Rawlings of the NDC remained in African Charter for Democracy, Elections and Governance; power as the military head of state from 1972 until 2000. the AU/OAU Declaration on the Principles Governing A constitutional referendum held in April 1992 allowing Democratic Elections in Africa; the Declaration of for a multi-party system was approved paving THE way Principles for International Election Observation; the for multiparty politics in the country. Seven successful Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and general elections l have since been held in 1992, 1996, Observation (PEMMO); and the Ghanaian legal framework 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. for elections. President Jerry Rawlings of the NDC won the elections In fulfilment of its mandate, the mission held consultative again in 1996 and remained president until 2000 election meetings with electoral stakeholders in Accra. EISA wishes when he transferred power to President John Agyekum to express its gratitude to the stakeholders who met Kufuor of the NDC after he had served his mandatory two with the assessment team and provided the necessary terms. President Kufuor won the election again in 2004 information for the realisation of the mission’s objectives. and served until 2009 when he handed over power to President John Atta Mills. In the 2008 election, none of The mission noted that while the legal framework broadly the contesting candidates was able to garner 50-percent- provides sufficient basis for the conduct of democratic plus-one of the votes needed to avoid a run-off election. In 4 EISA PRE-ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT | REPUBLIC OF GHANA | 07 DECEMBER 2020 the run-off election held a few weeks later, between Nana a sitting government had been defeated in the political Akufo-Addo and John Atta Mills, the two candidates who history of Ghana since 1992. had received the most votes, Mills was declared winner. Mills, however, served only one term from 2009-2012 and In comparison to other countries in West Africa, Ghana died while in office. He was succeeded by Vice President has managed to have peaceful transitions over the course John Dramani Mahama who was declared substantive of the years. In the 2016 election, incumbent President President as prescribed by the 1992 Constitution of Mahama quickly accepted his loss and conceded, paving Ghana and held the position from July 2012 till the the way for the winner to begin the peaceful transition general election in December 2012. In the 2012 election, process. NDC retained John Mahama to compete with NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo in a very competitive election that saw NDC The 07 December 2020 presidential and parliamentary win the election by a slim margin of (50.7%). The result elections will therefore be the country’s eighth since the was contested in the Supreme Court which upheld the transition to multiparty democracy in 1992. The elections Electoral Commission’s decision to declare John Mahama come highly contested as President Mahama, who lost to as winner. President Nana Kufuor in 2016, will be returning to contest a second final term. The election will also be conducted by President Mahama sought re-election in the 2016 election, a new chair of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensa, for a second and final term with his main challenger, the who was appointed in 2018. This followed the dismissal of opposition’s Nana Akufo-Addo. He was h defeated by former Electoral Commission chairperson Charlotte Osei, Nana Addo by a wide margin of over one million votes alongside her two deputies on grounds of abuse of office with a 53.9% win. Manama’s defeat was the first time and financial malpractices. Table 1: Political trends in Ghana Year Name of President Political party 1960 - 1966 Kwame Krumah CPP 1966 - 1969 Jospeh Arthur Ankrah National Liberation Council (NLC) 1969 – 1970 Akwasi Afrifa Military 1970 - 1972 Edward Akufo-Addo Independent 1972 - 1978 Kutu Acheampong Military 1978 - 1979 Fred Akuffo Military 1979 (4 June) – 1979 (24 Sept) Jerry Rawlings Military 1979 - 1981 Hilla Limann PNP 1981- 1993 Jerry Rawlings Provisional National Defense Council 1993 - 2001 Jerry Rawlings NDP 2001 – 2009 John Kufuor NPP 2009 – 2012 John Atta Mills NDP 2012 – 2017 John Mahama NDP 2017 – present Nana Akufo-Addo NPP Source: World Atlas 5 EISA PRE-ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT | REPUBLIC OF GHANA | 07 DECEMBER 2020 Table 2: 2016 Presidential Results Candidate Party Votes % Vote Nana Akufo-Addo New Patriotic Party (NPP) 5,755,758 53.72 John Dramani Mahama National Democratic Congress (NDC) 4,771,188 44.53 Paa Kwesi Nduom Progressive People’s Party (PPP) 106,092 0.99 Ivor Greenstreet Convention People’s Party (CPP) 25,552 0.24 Edward Mahama People’s National Convention (PNC) 22,214 0.21 Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings National Democratic Party (NDP) 16,935 0.16 Jacob Osei Yeboah Independent 15,911 0.15 Total 10,713,650 100 Source: Electoral Commission Ghana Table 3: 2016 Parliamentary Election Results Political Party No. of Seats 2016 No. of seats 2010 +/- New Patriotic Party (NPP) 169 123 +46 National Democratic Congress (NDC) 106 148 -42 Progressive People’s Party (PPP) 0 0 0 Convention People’s Party (CPP) 0 0 0 People’s National Convention (PNC) 0 1 -1 National Democratic Party (NDP) 0 0 0 All People’s Congress (APC) 0 New Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) 0 0 0 United Front Party (UFP) 0 0 0 Democratic People’s Party (DPP) 0 0 0 United Progressive Party (UPP) 0 New Independents 0 3 -3 Total 275 275 Source: ECG 2.2.