Innovations in Electoral Politics in Ghana’s Fourth Republic: An Analysis

Abstract

The quest for a fifth successful election in the preparation towards the December 2008 elections was of great interest to every Ghanaian. Though, the transitional presidential election of November 1992 was highly disputed by the opposition parties and which subsequently led to their boycott of the parliamentary poll that December; the acrimony no doubt had arisen from the fact that the military regime that had metamorphosed into a political party rigged that elections. This shaky foundation gave birth to Ghana’s current dispensation, which has witnessed a more peaceful and generally free and fair elections for three consecutive periods (1996, 2000 and 2004). Even, in 2000, there was a peaceful alternation of power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) which made Ghana a paragon of good governance and peaceful coexistence in West Africa. Despite this, the sub-region itself has over the last decade and half been better known for a spiral of violent conflict. This paper seeks to explain the apparent paradox, a flawed transition setting the stage for a democratic progress, in the light of the many varying innovations in Ghana’s electoral politics in the period under review