Ghanaian Presidential Elections: Stakes And Challenges

As Ghana approaches its presidential and legislative elections on 7 December 2024, with incumbent
president Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (N.P.P.) in the final months of his second term,
citizens will elect a new president from the 13 candidates approved by Ghana’s Electoral Commission
(E.C.) along with 275 members of parliament.

However, tensions between the two main parties, the N.P.P. and the New Democratic Congress (N.D.C.) and their candidates, current vice president Mahamudu Bawumia (N.P.P.) and former president John Dramani Mahama (N.D.C.), have intensified, specifically due to the N.D.C.’s pending signature of this year’s electoral peace pact. Combined with decreasing public trust in Ghana’s electoral institutions and the 2020 election-related violence, significant concerns about the peacefulness of Ghana’s upcoming elections have been raised.

These pressing issues stand in contrast to Ghana‘s reputation as a ‘beacon of democracy’ vis à vis
other West African countries especially as the Sahel region grows increasingly unstable with coup
d’états having occurred in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Ghana, conversely, has experienced regulated alternations of power with the N.P.P. and the N.D.C. respectively winning presidential elections since the creation of the fourth Republic in 1993.

The high anticipation of Ghana to act as a democratic role model in the region raises the stakes of its election but also the domestic unrest caused from the deadly protests in the aftermath of the 2020 elections during which at least six people were fatally shot. Hence, the efforts of Ghana’s National Peace Council to foster peaceful elections by having all political parties sign an electoral peace pact in 2020, have proved ineffective. But also Ghana’s E.C. faced strong post-election criticism after repeatedly publishing incorrect presidential election results, ultimately being accused of electoral fraud. The E.C. suffers a trust deficit as security analyst Festus Abogye explains, which further intensified as electoral registration kits went missing from the E.C.’s headquarters earlier this year.

As a result, calls for clarification and justice have gotten louder, with the N.D.C. being at the forefront
of these demands. N.D.C. Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah announced the party’s discontent with the lack of explanations concerning the 2020 election results and outstanding accountability as none of the security forces responsible for the fatal shootings have been charged or prosecuted. Hence, Nketiah announced that “signing a peace declaration does not mean anything…as previous pacts have not yielded any results.”

Whilst several civil society organizations support the N.D.C.’s demands for more transparency, many
criticize the party’s current decision not to sign this year’s peace pact. Albert Arhin, national coordinator of the ‘Coalition of Domestic Election Observers’ argues that the N.D.C. is “licensing electoral violence” (Tordzro, 2024). Similarly, the competing N.P.P. accuses the party as unwilling to “maintain a principled stance to peace and stability.” Worrisomely, these inter-party tensions amplify the growing risk of political vigilantism in the pre-and post environment of the 2024 presidential elections, which in light of most recent clashes between supporters of the N.D.C. and N.P.P. in the Savannah Region that left four injured, seems pressing.

With less than two months until election day, the likelihood for a more stable political climate remains
uncertain. Thus, it is of utmost importance for Ghana’s political parties and institutions to reiterate
their commitment to foster peaceful and transparent elections, starting by signing the electoral peace
pact. Whether and how this aspiration would manifest remains to be seen.

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