Ghana’s Election System – The Way Forward

The contentious 2008 Presidential run-off elections have undoubtedly exposed the deeply insidious problems with our electoral system. It is not that democracy per se is bad; it is the fact that we must take urgent steps to improve the system in ways that mitigate, anticipate and eliminate the opportunities for fraud in the system because the current checks and balances are insufficient in preventing such malfeasance.

The reports of electoral malpractices are too numerous to recount here but a few eye-catching allegations are worthy of highlighting. 1) The bloating of the voter register in Ashanti Region alone by over 113% in just under 4 years (from 2004 to 2008); 2) the incredible jump in percentage points of pro-NPP votes in the Ashanti Region of the December 7 and December 28 elections (from 76; 3 to 99.9%); 3) the disparity even in the results for Special Voting in the December 7 and December 28 elections, of a dramatic increase in special votes in the Ashanti Region; 4) allegations of voter intimidation and multiple-voting in the Volta Region, evidence of which the NPP is yet to provide; 5) the Manhyia Palace voter turn-out in main and run-off elections; 6) the detection of pre-thumb-printed fake election ballots in Wa, etc. etc. etc. Clearly, something is wrong with this picture and it appears that generally, these malpractices, if true, are highly concentrated in the Ashanti and Volta Regions. Further, the idea that a political party could necessarily secure the mandate to rule the country, merely by winning only 2 of the 10 regions in Ghana is a mathematical impossibility. Even if all persons (men, women and children living in any two Regions) were considered the equivalent of the eligible voter population, that will not even constitute 50% of the voter’s register. To be sure there are not 6 million people living in any two regions combined; if that were the case, that would constitute 27% of the total population in Ghana. The two Regions then (Volta and Ashanti) are at the core of the current election stalemate despite the fact that the opposition NDC is generally agreed to be ahead under the current circumstances.

In order to give some modicum of credibility to the election results and to prevent the aforementioned regions from continuing to impede the current electoral process, it might be worthwhile to consider and actually annul the votes from both regions completely for this election only. Surely, this will amount to disenfranchising a section of the voting population but it is a price necessary to resolve the apparent voter misconduct in both regions and to move the process forward. The final results should then be computed based on the 8 remaining regions and which ever party leads becomes the winner. It is important that voters and party leaders, and also candidates understand that there are punitive disincentives for acts which on their part compromise the election process. It is critical to send a clear message to political parties that adverse consequences await those who abuse and defraud the electoral system.

Finally, we must embark on a strategic plan which re-examines the entire election system with a view to ensuring the integrity of the electoral process. We must return to the very basics of counting our people. A good first step should be a more accurate system of colleting demographic data in the country through more efficient Birth and Death registries. There is a need to somehow connect our Birth and Death Registries to all hospitals in the country since in most cases, these areas are key points of entry and exit in our world; a bridging system should be established to handle those births and deaths that occur outside of these established institutions. This will bring some accuracy to our system of counting our people. From then on, a more credible Voter Register can be built.

God Bless.

Tierkaa, Christopher chris_tier_kaa@yahoo.com