Ghana has many 'amorphous election machines' not political parties – Prof Gyampo

Political Scientist Professor Ransford Gyampo has argued that Ghana may not be a multiparty democracy in the strictest sense of what a multiparty democracy is, stressing that many of Ghana’s political parties are mere amorphous election machines that pop up during elections and disappear afterward.

He noted that apart from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that take turns to win general elections in Ghana since 1992, all the other political parties have not shown that they are capable of winning elections.

He pointed out that even rejected ballots exceeded the total votes obtained by the minor parties in 2016 which was less than five percent.

“A multiparty democracy can be defined in terms of the type of political system in which more than two political parties of more or less equal strength exist such that it is extremely difficult for only one party to win a clear majority of votes in elections without the support of other political parties.

"Is Ghana in the strictest sense a multiparty democracy? When all other parties combined (apart from the two main ones) in the 2016 elections could not get five percent of the votes? Where Rejected Ballots had more votes than the remaining parties apart from the two main ones?” he quizzed.

The celebrated professor explained that political parties are not just meant to contest in elections but have other equally important functions such as educating voters.

“A multiparty democracy can certainly not be a license for the proliferation of amorphous “election machines” that surfaces only in times of elections and go to sleep in the inter-election period.

"Political parties do not exist to only contest elections! What happens to their role as agents of interest aggregation; agents of interest articulation; and agents of political socialization?” he wondered.

Last week a total of fourteen political parties filed for their presidential candidates to contest the upcoming presidential elections. But many of these parties do not seem to exist on the ground; they have no offices or do not engage in political campaigns or voter education on the ground.