Accra, Ghana, August 24, 2020//-Election has been an integral part of governance. It is a prerequisite for the legitimacy of a government in our dispensation.
In exception of some sovereignties where totalitarian principles are highly upheld, democracy is mostly given the ultimate test through an election.
For the benefit of those who may not know, an election is when registered voters are made to choose their representatives through voting.
Elections are conducted in specific range of years depending on the jurisdiction and system of governance being practiced by a sovereignty. In some territories, elections are conducted every four years.
Some territories conduct theirs every five years. Ghana and Ivory Coast are example of countries that go to the polls every four and five years respectively. Fast forward, Ghana is a democratic state with a unitary and neo-parliamentary governmental structure.
The 1992 constitution has provided for the conduction of general elections every four years after the assumption of office of every new government.
This has been the usual routine since its inception and adoption some twenty-eight years ago. More worthy of noting is that, Ghana is a multi-party democracy.
However, two political parties vis a vis National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) successively emerges dominant at the forefront of the Ghanaian national politics and governance in furtherance. Power has changed hands between those two political parties three successful times.
First of which was the change of power from the Jerry John Rawlings-led NDC administration to the John Agyekum Kufuor-led NPP administration in January 2001.
This was as a result of John Agyekum Kufuor’s triumphant victory over John Evans Atta Mills of blessed memory. His victory has been marked as one of the fiercely contested elections in Ghana as it was decided through a run-off (second ballot system) voting in the year 2000.
The second change of power was occasioned in 2009. This time around, from the New Patriotic Party to the National Democratic Congress led by John Agyekum Kufuor and the late John Evans Atta Mills respectively. Again, another keenly contested race.
Even fiercer than all Presidential elections in Ghana; talk less, the fourth republic. Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo was hitherto the flag bearer of the NPP by virtue of the constitutional expiration of John Agyekum Kufuor’s tenure of service to the good people of Ghana.
Eight years down the line, after the 2008 electoral victory of the NDC, the third and currently existing change of power was occasioned from John Dramani Mahama to Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo.
John Dramani Mahama ascended the helm of substantive leadership following the demise of his boss, John Evans Atta Mills. Subsequent to that, he won the 2012 polls which was a governmental continuum of the NDC. Throughout the electioneering trajectory of power changes that I elucidated in this chronicle, it would be noticed that, power changes in Ghana every eight years under the fourth republic.
The conundrum therefore remains if the eight years hoodoo will be broken come December 2020 or we may see a continuation of it. Readers can do some self-introspection to that and let’s see whichof these two possibilities will come into fruition.
The perspective of outliers in Ghana’s general elections cannot be overemphasized.For the avoidance of doubt, outliers are commonly known in the political parlance as “floating voters”.
Truth be told, party faithfuls will remain faithful as always. Whether governments perform to their satisfaction or not, party faithfuls will vote for their various political parties. That is the interesting part of an election especially in Ghana.
Albeit some political party members would like to juxtapose polices and vote according to those that suits the development of their own self and the country as a whole. Large majority will vote due to party affiliation and nothing else.
The 2020 general elections is on the horizon and I can say with much confidence that, the perspective laid out above will be very much applicable and will play a vital part on the outcome of the elections.
The outliers are going to vote based on various factors. Large majority of these voters are believed to vote on the basis of attractive and feasible policies which will be touted and stipulated in the manifestos of the various political parties.
It will also strategic and wise for any of these political parties to delve into coining and putting up something that will serve the interest of the outliers and win their trust completely.
All political parties, preferably the NDC and NPP must therefore up their game and rise to the occasion of promulgating good and realistic policies that will be palatable to the electorate.
This is the only way victory can be assured. Trust me, the people of Ghana are rapidly becoming discerning day by day. We are dealing with a large section of logically sound, literate and youthful population, who are capable of reading between the lines and determine what is good and bad, true and false and right and wrong.
I, for one, is of the greatest conviction that, the tenet of outliers deciding the 2020 election is highly likely.
By Wisdom Kofi Adzakor, nationalist
