Democracy in Action (Ghana Jan ‘08; Florida Nov ‘00)

March 7, 2009 by Dr. Cary Engleberg

(I apologize to those who have followed this blog and have noted my prolonged absence from the blogosphere recently. The hiatus in my reports from Ghana is a function of how busy I have become with work, and not a lack of interest in recording experiences or impressions. I will try to catch up. In fact, I have several “stories” in mind that I wish to document for Americans who hope to understand this country and its culture better. They trust that I am getting it right, and I hope I am. A few Ghanaian friends and colleagues have dropped in on this blog recently, and I hope they will keep me honest. Particularly in light of this current entry, since politics – like religion — is a controversial subject everywhere.)

My friends in the U.S. inform me that the news – the only news they hear from Ghana — relates to the recent election here. As usually happens in reporting current events on this continent, the news is reduced to oversimplifications and sweeping generalizations so that we who do not care to understand the subtleties can digest it with our Corn Flakes. By all accounts in the U.S. press, the election was a watershed event for Africa. A modern African country has now had two peaceful transfers of power to an opposition party dictated by the ballot box rather than by the rifle barrel. Indeed, this is what happened here this December and January. And this is good news for Ghana – the positive publicity, I mean. Maybe an American investor will feel confident enough to build a factory here and to employ some of the willing, cheap labor. Perhaps a stable African country can take off economically the same way China and India have done.

Of course, the reality is a bit more complicated. The election was hotly contested, because the Presidency was up for grabs. The sitting President had completed his limit of two 4-year terms. His political party, the National Patriotic Party (NPP), fielded a strong candidate to succeed him and to continue their wealth-building programs. Most knowledgeable people with whom I have discussed local politics compare the goals of the NPP to our Republican Party. Their intentions are similar insofar as is possible in a country that lacks many of the fundamentals, such as food, housing, education, and healthcare for much of the population. So unlike our Republicans, the NPP leaders cannot direct all of their efforts into the proliferation of more millionnaires. In addition, they can claim credit for installing a few social programs that have been substantial successes, e.g., national health insurance.

Several political parties challenged the status quo in this election, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which peacefully handed over power to the current regime eight years ago. The NDC nominated Atta Mills, a University of Ghana Law Professor and a previous two-time loser, as its candidate. This was done at the insistence of the NDC party chairman and founder, former President and Flight Lieutenant John Jerry Rawlings, who is typically either beloved or despised depending one’s socioeconomic status and one’s geographic and ethnic identity. Rawlings’ stronghold is the Eastern (Volta) Region of the country, named for the large man-made lake and river of the same name. The lake is the source of most of the country’s hydroelectric power, and the Volta Region is populated predominantly by people of Ewe ethnicity. Atta Mills is not a member of this ethnic group, and his Vice-Presidential choice is from the Northern Region, which is predominantly Muslim. Accordingly, the NDC has a social democratic philosophy and a reasonably credible policy of bridging ethnic divides.

There were a slew of other partisan hopefuls in the first-run of the election on December 7th, but none was able to attract more than 2% of the vote, and the real contest boiled down to a run-off between the NPP and NDC held on December 28th.

The NPP stronghold is the Ashanti Region, where most of the residents are of the Asante ethnicity and owe allegiance to the traditional leader, the Asantehene (Asante King). The NPP has also fielded Vice Presidential candidates from the North in the past and in the current election, but their track record suggests that this seat at the political table has not translated into any significant benefit for the Northern Region. As a result, the only regions of the country that produced a majority for the NPP in the election were the Ashanti Region and neighboring Brong-Ahafo Region, where the majority of the people are Asantes. However, since these regions voted overwhelmingly for the NPP, and since there are large populations of this ethnicity and related ethnicities that share common Akan-based languages elsewhere in Ghana, the popular vote was extremely close. The NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, failed to win a majority in the December 7th election by only a few tenths of a percent. So paradoxically, the minor parties that failed to attract any significant voter turnout themselves played a decisive role in the outcome of the election. Moreover, the NDC won a majority of the parliamentary seats, indicating its wide geographic popularity – an omen for the run-off election.

The run-off election between NPP and NDC was held on December 28th. Again, the margin between the parties was razor-thin. The Electoral Commissioner, a man who appears to have the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon, delayed the announcement of the results for several days in order to allow one small electoral constituency in Brong-Ahafo that had failed to receive ballots on December 28th to vote, to address claims of electoral shenanigans from both sides, and to permit the angry crowd of NDC voters assembled on the streets around the Electoral Commission in Accra to tire and eventually to disperse. The final result was an extremely narrow victory for the NDC and a peaceful exchange of power. But there remains some doubt in the public mind about the validity of the results. Several partisan radio stations and newspapers nourished this doubt by circulating stories about election day irregularities in either the stronghold Ashanti or Volta Regions, most of which later turned out to be apocryphal. Nevertheless, NPP voters remain as doubtful about the bonafide vote count as American Democrats were about the 2000 Bush-Gore contest results. Just as our Supreme Court seems to have decided the 2000 U.S. Election, the Electoral Commission played a critical role in Ghana by certifying the valid votes. As a result, many Ghanaians view the election as an affirmation of the national will to continue the peaceful transition of power, rather as a demonstration of a successful democratic election.

One of my Ghanaian friends remarked that both sides cheated in the elections and that the NPP lost the election because they did not cheat sufficiently in the first round. Another observed that the change of regime, whether earned or not, is itself a victory for democratic principles, since it serves notice to politicians that they will not be able to maintain their seats on the basis of party machine politics or ethnic identity alone. They will have to earn the confidence and the votes of the populace if they intend to remain in power. Most agree that the freedoms of uninhibited journalism and speech acquired with the transition from autocracy have become so ingrained in Ghanaian society that no elected regime will ever be able to reverse this progress. Ghanaians are free to be openly critical of anything in this society, and some are not timid about exercising this right, albeit in a polite way. And although most acknowledge that such a close election in another African country might have sparked a civil war, post-election violence in Ghana (whatever the electoral outcome) was never likely to be significant. This general perception did not stop the local media from an “ambulance chasing” style of reporting on Election Day. This is the way some of the coverage appeared to me:

ANCHOR: We go now to Field Correspondent Kwaku Ofosu at the _______ polling station where we have heard there has been some trouble reported. Kwaku, what is happening there at ________?

KWAKU: There has been a disturbance here, and the police have taken one man into custody. [footage of one obviously-intoxicated man being led away by a policeman]. We do not currently have his name or know what he is being charged with. However, the police have restored order here, and polling has resumed at this station.

ANCHOR: I see. (pause) I have just received a report of some violence at the _____ school polling station. Kwabena Osei is standing by at the scene. Kwabena, can you hear me?

KWABENA: Loud and clear.

ANCHOR: What is happening at your location at the _______ school polling station?

KWABENA: Well, there are long lines of voters here waiting to cast their ballots. The turnout has been much greater than anticipated, and there appears to be insufficient election officials on hand to process all of the voters.

ANCHOR: . . . and this has caused some disturbances?

KWABENA: None that I have seen. Voters are waiting patiently for their chance to cast their ballots.

ANCHOR: (muttered) Well, thank God for that!

It is not surprising that there was no recipient selected for a prestigious annual Ghanaian journalism award last year. Ghanaian telejournalists seem to have had an idea of the story they wanted to report, but reality did not comply with their pre-concepts.

There probably was an authentic risk of trouble when the relatively small NDC protest crowd assembled in Accra outside the Election Commission, but this also came to nothing in the end. This was the only worrisome occurrence of which I was aware during the election, and the police were on site in force the whole time. They would have promptly handled any violence that erupted there, and I doubt that it would have spread. Regarding the potential for serious electoral violence here, one of my friends remarked, “Ghanaians are not prepared to die for politicians.”

Up to now, President Mills has projected the image of a fair and just leader, an aged sage with nothing personal to gain from the presidency. He seems to be a man of vision in spite of the fact that his eyesight is failing, and the television cameras revealed the text of his speech was printed in an oversized font, 5-7 lines per page. The budget that he presented to the Parliament yesterday (March 5th) reflects the NDC Manifesto and the campaign promises that he made during the election. Today (March 6th), his speech at the Independence Day ceremonies in Accra emphasized his commitment to fairness and to prosecution of government corruption wherever it occurs. In contradistinction to these stated principles, some zealots in his administration have been taking actions that could be considered vindictive against members of the former regime. The most recent example was the impounding of Nana Akufo-Addo’s car while the former presidential candidate was temporarily overseas. The car turned out to be a privately-owned vehicle and not government property as was alleged. Mill’s Independence Day speech specifically disavowed using governmental power to settle political scores as a strategy of his administration. So, we will see whether this gentle and grandfatherly leader also finds “corruption” among his own partisans as well as the opposition.

: We arranged a trip to Accra so that we could stop at Kwame’s hometown and he could vote in the run-off election. Here he is going through the formalities of identification with the electoral agents.