Ghana has undoubtedly been the trailblazer in Africa and the sub-region by way of true and steady democracy. Ghana showed the way even in the light of independence from colonial rule.
The nation has guarded its democracy very well, after three disappointing republics, amidst some challenges and flaws though.
One would have thought that as we continue to make such huge strides, more and more meaningful lessons would not only be learnt but importantly, applied to effectively help shape and improve the democratic dispensation of this nation.
Ironically, this has not been the case. General, Parliamentary and By-Elections in this country have been our bane for the holistic success of Ghana’s democracy.
As per the nation’s supreme laws, “whenever a vacancy occurs in Parliament, the Clerk to Parliament shall notify the Electoral Commission in writing within seven days after the vacancy occurred, and a by-election shall be held within thirty days after the vacancy occurred.” This is article 112 (5) of the constitution of Ghana.
By-elections, known as special elections in other countries such as the United State of America, the Philippines, and India as Bypolls, are used to fill vacancies when there is more time ahead of the period of the parliaments. This comes as a result of the death or resignation of the incumbent, recall, incapacitation, or criminal conviction, among other factors.
This electoral or parliamentary system according to history was developed during the Parliamentary Reformation within the Houses of Commons of the United Kingdom in the 16th century.
Why have elections in this country of ours, especially by-elections so much been characterised by voting irregularities, violence, attacks and so much hatred thus marring the very beauty of the nation’s electoral processes and democracy for that matter?
The National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party are the worse offenders in this respect. This is because it is under their watch as respective governments that the nation has seen violence during by-elections.
Both parties aspire to ensure the betterment of the nationals through divergent methods and plans.
All over the world, there are opponents in politics but in Ghana and Africa for that matter, opposition means enemy. The opposition opposes almost everything and anything, even issues they would wholeheartedly peruse if they were in power.
For this and many other reasons, by-elections in Ghana have been misconstrued to be the barometer to authenticate the effectiveness or otherwise of the ruling party. Votes from by-elections are wrongly used to determine whether or not the ruling party is still popular among the populace, especially in the case of when there was doubt about the victory of the ruling party during the general elections.
Political parties, both in power and in opposition, in this case, the major opposition party, therefore, throw in all efforts to ensure victory during by-elections to prove a point.
Since the inception of the 1992 constitution, which ushered the nation into the fourth republic, a number of by-elections have taken place mostly as a result of the death of incumbent Members of Parliament. The few that quickly come to mind included the Akwatia constituency in 2009, the Atiwa constituency in 2010, the Wulensi & Kwabre West constituencies in 2012, the Talensi constituency in 2015, which appeared bloodier, the Abetifi and Abuakwa North constituencies in 2016, the Ayawaso West Wuogon, and more recently Kumawu and just this week, Assin North constituencies. These have sparked off a huge public sphere due to how campaigns were conducted amid wide speculations and allegations of vote buying.
All these were characterised by violence but the very recent by-election also left on its tail the issue of vote buying. This sends unpleasant signals to the entire nation and indeed the rest of the world that all is not well with our democracy and elections in general.
Why have these two major political parties in the country not been able to salvage the good name of this country from being trodden into the mud with the unfortunate records of violence and vote buying during elections, especially, by-elections?
Are they truly working for the good people of this country and not just to win power by all possible means? Much as everyone will agree that power is sweet, especially here in this part of the world, there is an urgent need for power seekers to be highly circumspect in their quest for the power they seek from the citizenry.
Each of these great political parties wields huge power, even in opposition and these powers are unpleasantly displayed during elections to the detriment of the ordinary Ghanaian.
The Assin North Constituency seat became vacant following a Supreme Court ruling that removed James Gyakye Quayson from parliamentary proceedings due to his dual citizenship status. Consequently, a by-election will be held to fill the vacant seat.
Over 800 police officers are reported to have been deployed to the constituency to maintain peace and order. There was a huge presence of the top hierarchy of the two prominent political parties NPP and the NDC
The order of the by-election by way of violence is gradually giving way to prompt provision of massive projects in constituencies where by-elections take place. Ruling governments amass resources and make provisions for huge development projects, especially in the area of roads.
Close to by-elections, the sudden massive development that is experienced by constituents is gradually becoming the order now. The mantra by the voters is that there must be more by-elections. Some MPs are jokingly reconsidering resigning to pave the way for by-elections with their accompanying massive infrastructure development in their constituencies.
There is also widespread allegations and speculation, perception and in some case real issues of vote buying as per media reports.
Vote buying is when a candidate or a candidate’s subordinate will pay citizens or voters a favourable amount of money for them in exchange for a vote. It is also sometimes in the form of a gift in kind. In this case, it is usually viewed as a purely economic exchange in which the voter sells his or her vote to the highest bidder.
Yet, does this view correspond to reality? There are different forms of vote buying across the world depending on the aspirations of both the candidates and voters.
The choice of offer strategies made by candidates and the meanings attached to offers by voters are shaped by their institutional, socio-economic, and organisational contexts.
The prospect of receiving material offers generates expectations among potential recipients which impose a form of accountability on politicians.
In the very last two by-elections in the country, the two major political parties in contention, namely the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have accused each other of massive vote-buying activities.
The NPP and the NDC are reported to be engaged in a back-and-forth exchange of accusations regarding vote buying in the lead-up to the Assin North by-election.
The National Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, has accused the NPP of purchasing votes by allegedly providing fertilisers and state-owned knapsack sprayers to voters.
In response, the National Communications Director of the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, has alleged that the opposition party has established depots in Assin North to distribute goodies in order to entice potential voters.
He also shared videos as evidence, alleging the ruling NPP government’s misuse of taxpayers’ money for election purposes.
On the other hand, Mr Ahiagbah shared a one-minute video on Facebook that depicted individuals having their names called out before being handed a machete and items in polythene bags.
The effectiveness of efforts to eliminate the practice of ‘vote buying’ depends on how well reformers anticipate the menu of offer strategies available to candidates and whether they take into account the particular meanings recipients attach to the offers.
Vote buying is rarely an isolated action, and it perpetuates corruption throughout the entire political system. When a candidate chooses to pay for support, rather than compete fairly for votes, they show a disregard for democratic norms and a willingness to use illegal means and this must stop.
BY NANA SIFA TWUM (PHD)
