The Politics of Primary Elections in Ghana: A Study of the National Democratic Congress’ Parliamentary Primaries in the Upper West Region From 2003-2015
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Date
2019-07
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
In Ghana, parliamentary primaries are so topical and keenly contested for in a party’s strongholds. This is because, the chances of becoming a Member of Parliament (MP) are very high after wining the primaries and so primaries are the real elections in those areas. For this reason, contestants especially sitting MPs would employ all manner of tactics in order to outwit their opponents. This thesis therefore examines the sort of politics that goes on in the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) parliamentary primaries in the Upper West Region. The study uses “A theory of political parties: groups, policy demands and nomination”, and the Alternative theory for the use of primary elections in new democracies as the theoretical foundation. The views of three hundred and ninety-eight (398) respondents were sought by the use of a survey questionnaire, and elite interviews conducted for twenty-seven (27) specially selected NDC members. After the analysis of the data, the study argues that the actual contest in the parliamentary primaries starts with parliamentary hopefuls influencing the selection of constituency executives, which precede the parliamentary primaries. This is in view of the crucial role these executives’ play as to who wins primaries in each constituency. Secondly, from 2003-2007, many sitting MPs went unopposed based on three reasons; fist, many NDC members were not politically enlightened to contest for the post. Secondly, the NDC was in opposion and so new entrants could not marshall the necessary resources to challenge sitting MPs.Thirdly, party officials coluded wih sitting MPs to appealed to new entrants to step down for the future and for party unity. More importantly, the administrative processes governing the primaries were highly flawed to give undue advantage to certain candidates, as the entire process was fraught with favouritism, intimidation, bribry and vote buying. Additionally, it was noticed that incumbency served as an advantage to especially sitting MPs, but party endorsement of candidates did not inure to the advantage of either the candidate or the party as a whole. Lastly, women participation in parliamentary primaries was low because of societal odds that militate against their participation in politics. The study therefore recommended reforms to creat a level playing field for all and to enticse more women into politics. This should be done to match the name the National democratic Congress.
Description
PhD. Political Science
Keywords
Elections, National Democratic Congress’, Upper West Region, Parliamentary Primaries