Beyond Ghana’s Elections

Peaceful elections do, in fact, occur in Africa, and Ghana’s, on December 7, should be duly noted. The results of Ghana’s elections were announced on December 10. The country will face a run-off election on December 28 because neither of the two frontrunners reached the 50 percent threshold required to declare victory. Governing National Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Akufo-Addo won 49.13 percent of the votes and John Atta Mills from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 47.92 percent of the vote.

These facts, however, do not fully capture Ghana’s historic movement to an increasingly stable democracy. While the elections are not yet over, it is important that we do not look at them as a singular event that has already passed on as the newsfeeds continue to focus on many of the tragic news coming from many parts of Africa. Let’s examine the positive and very newsworthy stories coming from Ghana’s elections:

1. At the end of Ghana’s second round of presidential debates, the four major presidential candidates literally came together by holding hands and verbally pledging for peaceful elections. This pledge has been circulated on billboards throughout the country as a positive reminder of what can and will be. And the peace has held despite a close contest and despite Ghana’s recent discovery of offshore oil worth a possible $3 billion. 
2. Grassroots democracy was at work as Parliamentary debates were also held throughout the country. Though many of these debates were organized by think-tanks and other organizations, many communities took it upon themselves to facilitate debates independently to get acquainted with the issues and cast an informed vote. 
3. Determined Ghanians started queueing as early as 2:30am to vote even though polls didn’t open until 7:00 am. Few Americans will have the tenacity to stand in line that long for a concert, let alone an election. According to the BBC, listeners were calling in to local radio stations before dawn to pray for peaceful elections.

Ghanaians now await a second chance to speak their voice for a decisive presidential decision.

According to one reader’s post from Accra on the BBC Africa website,

We have done this run-off thing before and then when we did, that Christmas was a bit tense, but this time I am around…I think that everyone’s just going to relax. I am feeling relaxed because over the weekend there were no incidents, there was nothing to make me worry and there were also a lot of checks and balances in place to ensure everything went well…I am happy that the election has been peaceful so far and everyone has been understanding of the situation and that our lives have gone on.

Democracy continues to be a process that must be nurtured, especially after the elections. The work has only just begun. While peace is crucial for elections, we cannot say that Ghana has “arrived.” The informed and peaceful discussions must continue between Ghanaians and their elected officials as well as among public officials themselves.

Ghana set an example for the rest of the African continent in 1957 when it became the first independent African nation – proving to other African countries that they too could become independent. Let Ghana set another example for the rest of the continent and prove that many other African countries can also achieve a peaceful and smooth democratic transition of presidential and parliamentary power through informed dialogue and active citizenry.