Rational voting in Ghana’s 2012 and 2016 national elections in perspective

Abstract

The dominant narrative explaining the electoral victory of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 and 2016 national elections in Ghana respectively emphasized coherence and realistic nature of campaign messages; appeal of presidential candidates, campaign strategies and symbolic politics as being instrumental in determining the outcomes. This paper argues that beyond these factors, voter rationality also played a role. The Ghanaian voter is increasingly becoming rational in several respects: in the manner they demand instantaneous rewards for the choices that they make, and also the sophistication of the pattern of votes. Increasingly, the traditional assumption of the dominant party model, ideological and sociological variables are gradually been muscled out and opening Ghana’s democratic process towards consolidation. Political candidates are gradually becoming cognisant of the fact that the voter can no longer be taken for granted. The danger of the rational choice model is the fact that instantaneous rewards have moved the Ghanaian political space to ostentatious spending. This has strangled smaller political parties out of electoral competition and has further tilted electoral fortunes to the two dominant political parties; the NDC and the NPP.