Let’s draw lessons from Ghana experience to ensure credible elections

What you need to know:

  • Use of new technology, rules and oversight have helped ensure public has confidence in work of the polls agency.

For the past week I have been in Ghana conducting research on the history of the country’s elections.

Everyone I have spoken to has agreed that the quality of polls has improved substantively since the country returned to multi-party politics in 1992.

However, they have simultaneously drawn attention to the opportunities that still exist for malpractice and emphasised the need for greater vigilance. It is clear that the Ghanaian story provides some important lessons.

In terms of improvements, interviewees have been quick to point to a range of new technologies, regulations and oversight that have helped ensure that Ghanaians have increased confidence in the electoral commission’s work.

For example, in 1992, opaque ballot boxes were used for the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections. This fuelled rumours that the boxes had been stuffed in favour of the incumbent, President Jerry Rawlings, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), before voting had begun.

In turn, a subsequent shift to the use of transparent boxes is widely hailed as a key deterrent against such malpractice.

Interviewees also cited changes in voter registration. They include the introduction of photos (coloured ones) in the register, and biometric listing. The latter, in particular, is said to have helped to minimise the problem of multiple voting, which is widely believed to have marred earlier elections.

RECRUIT AGENTS

Another important development is the increased investment in party agents to oversee voting and counting at every polling station across the country.

Interviewees recalled how, in initial multi-party elections, poorly trained (and often illiterate) agents did not take note of problems, left before counting had been completed, or were bought by the opposing political party.

In contrast, the country’s two major political outfits, the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which have dominated every election since 1992, now draw upon established party structures across the country to recruit agents for every polling station.

Various methods are used to try and ensure that these officers oversee the process until the counting has been completed, and that they raise objections where and when necessary.

This includes the recruitment of more educated agents; the introduction of more substantial training; payment of an allowance only at the end of the process; and the provision of food and water on election day.

Nevertheless, while Ghana is often held up as a model of democracy in Africa, interviewees have been keen to stress that the system is far from perfect. Yes, the country has had three peaceful transfers of power — from Lieutenant Colonel Rawlings and the NDC to Mr John Kufour and the NPP in 2000, from Mr Kufuor and the NPP to Mr John Atta Mills and the NDC in 2008, and from Mr Mills to Mr John Mahama (still of the NDC) in 2012 following Mr Mills’ death.

However, given that Ghana, like Kenya, has a two-term limit on the presidency, this means that no incumbent president has yet vied and lost. This may be due to the popularity of incumbent candidates.

However, officials — whether they are from the NDC in reference to Mr Kufuor’s re-election in 2004, or NPP in reference to Mr Mahama’s election in 2012 — insist that the incumbent party has also “stolen” elections.

In the last poll, one of NPP’s complaints, which it raised in its electoral petition it unsuccessfully brought before the Supreme Court, was that votes had been added at many polling stations in NDC strongholds with the connivance of some electoral commission staff.

However, they failed to provide sufficient evidence because many of their party agents had signed the polling station level forms. This has further highlighted the need to have well-trained, loyal and strong agents.

Currently, there is debate about the country’s voter list amid claims that many underage voters and non-Ghanaians have registered. This has prompted the NPP to demand that people be registered afresh.

HUMAN OVERSIGHT

There are several lessons to be learnt. One is that technology can make a difference, and can render some malpractices more difficult.

However, it also highlights the importance of human oversight and the need for the presence of disciplined party agents across the country at every stage of the electoral procedure — from registration through to voting, counting and tallying — if public confidence in this key political process is to be strengthened.

This is in addition to fostering faith in critical institutions such as the electoral commission, the judiciary and security forces.

Gabrielle Lynch is Associate Professor of Politics, University of Warwick, UK. ([email protected]; @GabrielleLynch6)