Saturday, December 6, 2008

Ghana Votes 2008

Ghana goes to the polls tomorrow to elect a new President and 240 members of Parliament under the shadow of recent electoral violence and malpractice in various African countries. Kenya and Zimbabwe had their problems this year where rigging and violence was rampant. Our neighbours Ivory Coast have once again postponed their elections. Our other not too distant neighbours, Nigeria where rigging was rife are even today after one year contesting some disputed election results. But it’s not all gloom and doom when it comes to election is Africa. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Zambia have all had peaceful transitions of political leadership.

Democracy is young in Africa. In 1957 Ghana was the first country to win independence on this continent. In the course of its independent history civilian rule was often interrupted by military coups until democracy returned with some form of stability in 1992.

This is a multi party democracy but two parties (NPP & NDC) have ruled the roost and held sway over the country for the last 16 years. We are led to believe that there are three main contenders for the Presidency – Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Convention (NDC) and Papa Kwesi Ndoum of the Convention People’s Party (CPP). The ruling NPP dominates in the Ashanti and Central Regions of the country and the NDC has massive support in the Volta Region and the Northern Region of Ghana.

And though Ghanaians have made it clear that they prefer democracy with all its flaws to military rule or anarchy we pray that the elections will go off peacefully and that all people will respect the outcome of this election whether it is favourable to their party or not.

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