“Operation Eagle Eye”: Border Citizenship and Cross-border Voting in Ghana’s Fourth Republic
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Date
2020
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Journal of Borderlands Studies
Abstract
This article examines the role of elections in bordering through
disputes over cross-border voting since Ghana returned to a multi-party democracy in 1992. It uses case studies from some
communities that border Togo in the Volta Region of Ghana
which is the epicenter of alleged cross-border voting. In these
communities, “border citizenship” is expressed through the
deployment of ritual space, social and political relations which is
across national borders. But this begs the question of whether
border citizens view voting as a right or not, or more specifically,
contest the border by participating in elections on either side of
the border. This article argues that border citizens are not only
involved in contesting the border; one can assume to have a
border citizenship and still respect the border in elections by
refusing the act of cross-border voting. This study not only
contributes to border studies by highlighting the importance of
electoral politics in the bordering process but it also brings to
light the complexities of cross-border voting, since it shows that
border residents in the Ghana-Togo borderland communities do
not all perceive cross-border voting positively
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Ghana-Togo border, cross-border voting, border citizenship