12 candidates on a ballot paper waste of space, shun election machines – Gyampo

Professor Ransford Gyampo of the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana has advised the Electoral Commission to move beyond its narrow focus on elections, and activate its other regulatory functions of ensuring that only Political Parties exist and operate in the body politic, and not election machines.

Prof Gyampo’s advice comes after the election management body okayed 12 presidential aspirants to contest in the upcoming December election.

According to the lecturer, although he agrees multiparty democracy is expensive, the space it provides for electoral contestation must only be given to political parties worth their salt, not election machines.

He described political groups that surface only during elections and goes to sleep afterward, only to be heard when there is another election, as election machines and not political parties.

In a statement copied to ClassFMonline.com, Prof Gyampo was of the opinion that “the clearance by the Electoral Commission of as many as 12 candidates to be on our ballot papers will not only create confusion in voter selection during voting, but would also amount to a waste of space on the ballot papers.”

The qualified candidates for this year’s presidential election as announced by the EC are: Alfred Walker, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Christian Kwabena Andrews, Bridgette Dzobegnuku, John Dramani Mahama, Akua Donkor and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.

The rest are: Hassan Ayariga, Ivor Greenstreet, Henry Herbert Lartey, Kofi Akpaloo and David Apesera.

Read Prof Gyampo’s full statement below:

A multiparty democracy connotes the existence of more than two political parties, with more or less equal political strength, such that in any major electoral contestation, it becomes difficult for only one party to win a clear majority of votes, without the support of other political parties.

This is the true definition of a multiparty democracy. Until political parties in Ghana strive to achieve this, the clearance by the Electoral Commission of as many as 12 candidates to be on our ballot papers will not only create confusion in voter selection during voting, but would also amount to a waste of space on the ballot papers.

Multiparty Democracy is expensive, I agree. But the space it provides for electoral contestation, must only be given to political parties worth their salt, not election machines.

If only one party can win an election without the support of any other political party, then we are not a true multiparty democracy. The space for electoral contestation in a true multiparty democracy can only be given to political Parties that also functions in the inter-election period, as agents of interest aggregation, agents of interest articulation, agents of Political socialization, agents of leadership grooming, agents for shaping the political destinies and socio-economic well-being of Ghana, as well as agents that offer constructive criticisms that keep regimes on their toes to do the right thing.

A political group that surfaces only during elections and goes to sleep afterwards, only to be heard when there is another election, is not a political party, but an election machine.

Not until political parties accept this blunt truth, and be strategic in what they crave for; and until the Electoral Commission rigidly enforce our electoral laws as they apply to political parties in inter-election period, or in between election seasons, Ghana may remain duopolistic for a long time, particularly, when partisan realignment is rare in transitional democracies like Ghana.

It is only a true multiparty democracy that can have as many as 12 candidates on a ballot paper in an electoral contestation. As we grow our democracy, our Electoral Commission must move beyond its narrow focus on elections, and activate its other regulatory functions of ensuring that only Political Parties exist and operate in the body politic, and not election machines.

Yaw Gyampo

A31, Prabiw

PAV Ansah Street

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Suro Nipa House

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