Prof Gyimah Boadi decries Ghana’s ‘winner knows all’ governance system

Former Executive Director of the Center of Democratic Development, Prof Emmanuel Gyima Boadi, has said some aspects of governance in Ghana does not abide by the tenets of democracy.

According to him, governance is moving from the popular description, ‘winner takes all’ to ‘winner knows all’.

The ‘winner takes all’ approach is the practice in Ghana where all public or official positions and appointments are given to members of the party that win an election.

Many Ghanaians have condemned the practice and called for an end to the system, so that posts would be given to deserving non-party members who can better promote the national interest. Speaking at the '14th Kronti ne Akwamu Lecture' in Accra, Thursday, the governance expert said the government must consider the implication of the ‘winner takes all practice’ where the winning party takes policies from manifestos without passing them through a legislative process.

“we should examine the implication evolving practice of the wining party taking policies and proposals from it election campaign manifesto ( free SHS policy or one time National Health Insurance Premium) straight to implementation by executive fiat without passing them through a legislative or subsidiary legislation [process something that would have allowed for broader and diverse public civil society and even parliamentary input, so are we now moving to winner knows all as if the winner takes all wasn’t bad enough” He said

The Executive Director of the Afrobarometer Network also tasked the Electoral Commission of Ghana to reduce the cost involved in organising elections in Ghana in the coming years.