Playing the Second Fiddle: Reflections on Running Mate Selection and the Vice Presidency in the Fourth Republic of Ghana”

Abstract

The Vice Presidency is the second highest political office in any republic, but historically, it has never constitutionally and practically been accorded the powers and prestige that it deserves. The mode of appointment has made the running mate only an appendage to the presidential candidate. No one votes for the vice president per se; he is part of a package deal and not an independent choice. In office, the vice president remains ‘a second man position’ to the president who has all the powers and resources to perform his duties. More importantly, the vice president’s position is surrounded with paradoxes in the sense that often the president, reluctant to take the vice president into full confidence, takes his decisions with his immediate staff, leaving the vice president a sullen outsider. These apparent dilemmas surrounding the running mate selection process and around the position of the vice president in Ghana’s Fourth Republic are what this study seeks to explore