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Elections in the Fourth Republic (1992-2000) Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republic (1992-2000) Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE), University of Ghana, Legon POLI 444 Electoral Politics and Democracy in Ghana Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republic (1992- 2000) Elections in the Fourth Republic (1992-2000) Introduction You are most welcome to Unit 4. After more than ten years of PNDC rule Ghana would return to constitutional rule in January 1993 after a referendum in April 1992 to approve a new constitution, a presidential election in November 1992 and a parliamentary election in December of the same year. Since then Ghana has held five other consecutive presidential and parliamentary elections every four years, each of them with very interesting dimensions. We shall in this Unit study the 1992 Referendum and the first three parliamentary and presidential elections (1992, 1996 and 2000) and follow in the next Unit with the other three (2004, 2008 and 2012). To be able to deal with the Unit in a very comprehensive manner, the following topics will be covered: Section 1 The 1992 Referendum and Presidential Elections Section 2 The 1992 Parliamentary Elections Section 3 The 1996 Presidential Elections Section 4 The 1996 Parliamentary Elections Section 5 The 2000 Presidential Elections and Run-off Section 6 The 2000 Parliamentary Elections I hope you will enjoy very much since you may have voted in some or all of those elections or you may even have contested as candidate. Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE), University of Ghana, Legon 105 POLI 444 Electoral Politics and Democracy in Ghana Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republics (1992- 2000) Objectives By the end of this Unit, you should be able to explain the purpose of the 1992 referendum analyze the outcome of the 1992 presidential election and why the losing parties rejected the outcome examine the opposition boycott and the outcome of the 1992 parliamentary election discuss the factors that influenced the re-election of Rawlings in 1996 analyze the regional dynamics of the 1996 parliamentary election explain the factors that led to the inconclusive 2000 first round presidential election and the alternation in power in the run-off analyze the regional distribution of the 2000 parliamentary election 106 Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE), University of Ghana, Legon POLI 444 Electoral Politics and Democracy in Ghana Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republic (1992- 2000) Section 1 The 1992 Referendum and Presidential Election Introduction Welcome to Section 1 of Unit 4. In this section, I begin the discussion of elections in the Fourth Republic. You will study the purpose and outcome of the April 1992 Referendum and how it paved the way for the Fourth Republic. I shall further discuss the contesting parties, presidential tickets, the outcome and effects of the 1992 presidential election. Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to explain the significance of the outcome of the April 1992 referendum analyze the presidential tickets for the 1992 election outline the regional and national dimensions of the 1992 presidential election results account for the rejection of the 1992 presidential election discuss the effects of the 1992 presidential election Background After more than one decade in office, the PNDC eventually agreed to return Ghana to multiparty constitutional rule at the start of 1993. Meanwhile, the PNDC from 1990 through its National Commission on Democracy (NCD) had held regional foras to ascertain views on a new constitution. A nine-member Committee of Experts was then set up to make proposals before a constituent assembly, called Consultative Assembly, drew up the 1992 Constitution. Three major steps in 1992 towards the return to constitutional rule were the Referendum in April, the Presidential Election in November and the Parliamentary Election in December. We examine the first two in this section and the parliamentary election in the next. Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE), University of Ghana, Legon 107 POLI 444 Electoral Politics and Democracy in Ghana Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republics (1992- 2000) The April 1992 Referendum The 28th April 1992 Referendum was held to adopt a new constitution which would usher Ghana into the Fourth Republic. From July 1990, the ruling PNDC as part of the transition to constitutional rule tasked the National Commission for Democracy (NCD) to hold seminars in then ten regional capitals in order to gather public opinion on the future democratic constitution. The NCD submitted its report, advocating a multi-party system, in April 1991. The PNDC then appointed a nine-member committee of constitutional experts charged with developing proposals for a draft constitution. The preparation of the initial draft took eight weeks beginning on 7th June and culminating on 31 July 1991. The Consultative Assembly concluded its work on 30 March 1992. It was the draft constitution by the Consultative Assembly which was put to a public referendum on 28 April 1992. The opposition forces were not happy about some aspects of the draft constitution and also about how the ruling PNDC controlled the whole transition process but they campaigned for the acceptance of the Constitution, hoping they could still compete fairly and wrestle power from the PNDC. The political opposition was also of the belief that a return to multiparty constitutional rule, however limited, would open up the political and electoral space for the future. Of the 8,253,690 registered voters, 3,689,974 (43.7%) voted. There was a massive support for the adoption of the constitution. 3,408, 119 representing 92.6% voted for while the remaining 272,855 (7.4%) voted against. Following the referendum, the ban of party politics was lifted on 18 May 1992 to allow for the formation of parties to contest the presidential and parliamentary elections in November and December 1992 respectively. 1992 Presidential Election: Contesting Parties and Candidates Seven political parties contested the 1992 presidential election though three of them had a common presidential candidate. The seven parties were the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the National Convention Party (NCP), Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the National Independence Party (NIP), the People’s Heritage Party (PHP) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). 108 Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE), University of Ghana, Legon POLI 444 Electoral Politics and Democracy in Ghana Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republic (1992- 2000) Let us learn a little about each of those parties: The NDC was formed largely by major functionaries of the ruling PNDC with the aim of ensuring that PNDC chairman Rawlings would contest the presidential election and continue in office. The EGLE was also another party formed particularly by the cadres of the PNDC era in support of Rawlings’ continued stay in power. The NCP was one of the four parties which took its roots from the CPP. Its founder was Kwaku Boateng, a former minister of the Nkrumah era, but it also had some prominent PNDC functionaries like Kojo Tsikata among its members. It was the NDC, EGLE and NCP which formed an alliance and fielded Rawlings as the common presidential candidate. The other three Nkrumahist parties were: PNC formed and led by ex-President Hilla Limann, the NIP led by industrialist Kwabena Darko and the PHP led by a former military general Emmanuel Erskine. The NPP was formed by the re-grouping of the former Progress Party (PP) which in 1979 broke into PFP and UNC. It had as its presidential candidate Albert Adu Boahen, a history professor. 1992 Presidential Elections: Presidential Candidates and Running Mates Party Presidential Candidate Running Mate National Democratic Congress Jerry John Rawlings Kow Nkensen Arkaah (NDC) /National Convention Party (NCP)/Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE). New Patriotic Party (NPP) Albert Adu Boahen Roland I. Alhassan People’s National Convention Hilla Limann Isaac N Chinebua (PNC) National Independence Party Kwabena Darko Naa Afarley Sackeyfio (NIP) Peoples Heritage Party (PHP) Emmanuel A. Erskine Ibrahim Mahama The table above is the full list of the presidential tickets for the 1992 election held on 3rd November 1992. The NDC-NCP-EGLE had Rawlings as its presidential candidate with Kow Nkensen Arkaah as his running mate. Arkaah, an ex-PNP MP had earlier defeated NCP founder Boateng to become the party’s presidential candidate. When Arkaah and the NCP agreed to form the alliance with NDC & EGLE, he was rewarded with the alliance running mate slot. Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE), University of Ghana, Legon 109 POLI 444 Electoral Politics and Democracy in Ghana Unit 4 Elections in the Fourth Republics (1992- 2000) For the NPP, candidate Adu Boahen, a 1979 UNC losing parliamentary candidate had Roland I. Alhassan, himself a1979 losing UNC parliamentary candidate, as his running mate. Ex-President Limann chose one of his ex-ministers Isaac K. Chinebuah, as the running mate for the PNC. For the NIP, Kwabena Darko had Naa Afarley Sackeyfio, an English professor, as his running mate. The PHP candidate Erskine chose Ibrahim Mahama, the 1979 SDF presidential candidate as his running mate. Like in 1979, the 1992 presidential tickets worked towards regional (north-south), ethnic, religious or gender balance. We illustrate below with some examples even though some of them cut across more than one. For north-south balance, Limann from Upper West chose Chinebuah from Western for the PNC; while Adu Boahen from Ashanti chose his running mate from Northern. For ethnic balance, Rawlings, an Ewe (non-Akan) had Arkaah, an Effutu (Guan) from Central on the NDC-NCP-EGLE ticket On the PHP ticket was religious balance between Erskine, a Christian and Mahama, a Muslim The NIP went for gender balance: Darko a male candidate with a Naa Afarley, a female running mate.
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