EXPLAINING CHANGE IN VOTER BEHAVIOUR: 
A STUDY OF THE LAWRA CONSTITUENCY IN THE                                         
2008 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GHANA 
 
 
   
 
MATHEW LOBNIBE ARAH 
10020356 
 
 
THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, 
LEGON IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR 
THE AWARD OF M.PHIL POLITICAL SCIENCE DEGREE 
 
 
 
JUNE, 2012.
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DECLARATION 
I, Mathew Lobnibe Arah, solemnly declare that apart from documentation and other sources 
of material cited and duly acknowledged in this work, I am solely responsible for the 
authorship, errors and omissions that might appear in this work, despite the advice and 
suggestions I have received from my supervisor. 
I further declare that this thesis has not been submitted either in part or whole for the award of 
another degree in this university or elsewhere. 
 
 
…………………………………     …………………… 
MATHEW LOBNIBE ARAH       DATE 
 (STUDENT) 
 
 
……………………………………     ………………….... 
DR. ISAAC OWUSU-MENSAH       DATE 
(SUPERVISOR) 
 
 
…………………………………                                                      ……………………. 
DR. EMMANUEL DEBRAH                                                                    DATE 
          (SUPERVISOR)                                          
 
 
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DEDICATION 
This work is dedicated to my caring and lovely mother and step-mother, Madam Maawa 
Babala and Madam Kaa-ih Annuur respectively and my hard working and responsible father, 
Mr. Danyaare Arah. Though uneducated, they saw the need to toil under the scotching sun on 
their farm with the hoe and cutlass, the produce of which sponsored me to become a scholar 
to this level. May God give them longer life to enjoy the fruits of their labour. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
This piece of work would not have come into fruition without the encouragement, inspiration, 
guidance, financial support and the valuable comments and criticisms of many people who 
helped in shaping this study into a full thesis. 
My first acknowledgement goes to my supervisor, Dr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah for his guidance 
and immense support and encouragement. In fact his constant reminder for me to work harder 
and the cordial relationship that existed between us gave me a lot of hope and energy to finish 
this piece of work. My next thanks go to Mr. Emmanuel B. Saaburo for sowing and nurturing 
the interest in me to come back to school for a second degree. It is by his constant and 
persistent reminder that finally made me to avail myself for a Master of Philosophy degree in 
Political Science. May God give him the spirit of concern to keep on prompting people in life. 
To lawyer Carl Adongo, Mr. Thomas Acquinas Akazabre and Hon. Joseph Yielle Chireh, I 
say thank you for your financial assistance and may the good Lord replenish what you spent 
on me hundred fold. 
Additional thanks go to my friends,Issah Imoro, Babatus Ayanoore, Peter Mba, Paul Tibil, 
Ruben Deku, Donald Akotuah, Arko Blay, Sampson Danso, Isaac Pabia, Thomas Chireh for 
their encouragement and diverse roles they played in finishing this work.  
I also extend my heart-felt felicitation and appreciation to my direct siblings; Isaac Arah, 
Elizabeth Arah, Agnes Arah, Joseph Arah, Augustine Arah, Eric Arah, Patrick Arah and 
Cynthia Arah for their moral support and extra sacrifices they made for me to come out with 
this thesis. May the caring Jesus bond us together with the spirit of brotherliness.  
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Finally, I owe the following people tones of gratitude; Mr. Charles Afari, Acting Director of 
NFED, Madam Susan Berdie-Head of Material Development section – NFED, Madam 
Margret Wojeo, Head of Library Services Unit-NFED and Mr. Joseph Lama, Upper East 
Regional Director of NFED for creating the enabling environment for me to combine work 
and studies. I will forever remember and remain grateful for their assistance. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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TABLE OF CONTENT 
Content                     Page 
DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................i 
DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................................ ii 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................................... iii 
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................................................... v 
LIST OF ABBREVIATION ...................................................................................................................ix 
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................ xii 
LIST OF FIGURES ..............................................................................................................................xiv 
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... xv 
 
CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................................... 1 
INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................... 1 
1.1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 1 
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM ........................................................................... 3 
1.3 HYPOTHESIS ................................................................................................................................... 4 
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................ 4 
1.5 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY ......................................................................................................... 4 
1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................... 5 
1.6.1 Studies on General Voter Behaviour not Related to Africa ........................................................ 6 
1.6.2 Studies of Voter Behaviour on Africa ....................................................................................... 11 
1.6.3 Studies of Voter Behaviour on Ghana ....................................................................................... 13 
1.7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................... 18 
1.7.1 The Rational Choice Paradigm ................................................................................................. 19 
1.7.2 Weaknesses of the Rational Choice Paradigm .......................................................................... 21 
1.7.3 Voter-Led Theory...................................................................................................................... 21 
1.7.4 How the Rational Choice and the Voter-Led Theories Explain the Study................................ 22 
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................. 24 
1.9 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................... 24 
1.10 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................. 30 
1.11 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 30 
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 32 
 
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CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................................... 37 
HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN LAWRA CONSTITUENCY FROM 1992 TO 
2008, THE PARTIES, CANDIDATES, CAMPAIGN ISSUES AND MESSAGES INVOLVED ....... 37 
2.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................ 37 
2.2 HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN LAWRA BEFORE THE FOURTH 
REPUBLIC ............................................................................................................................................ 37 
2.3 HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN LAWRA UNDER THE FOURTH 
REPUBLIC FROM 1992 - 2008 ............................................................................................................ 38 
2.4 HOW THE ELECTORATES PERCEIVED THE VARIOUS POLITICAL PARTIES THAT 
CONTESTED ELECTIONS FROM 1992 – 2008 ................................................................................ 47 
2.4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 47 
2.4.2 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) .............................................................................. 48 
2.4.3 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) ................................................................................................. 52 
2.4.4 The Convention People‟s Party (CPP) ...................................................................................... 55 
2.4.5 The People‟s National Convention (PNC) ................................................................................ 55 
2.4.6 Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) ............................................................................................ 56 
2.4.7 The Democratic People‟s Party (DPP) ...................................................................................... 57 
2.4.8 The National Convention Party (NCP) ..................................................................................... 57 
2.5 BRIEF POLITICAL PROFILE OF ALL THE PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES FROM 1992 
– 2008 ..................................................................................................................................................... 58 
2.5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 58 
2.5.2 The NDC Candidates ................................................................................................................ 58 
2.5.2.1 Ken Kunfaa ........................................................................................................................ 58 
2.5.2.2  Anthony Bundong Koyiri .............................................................................................. 59 
2.5.2.3 Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor ...................................................................................................... 59 
2.5.3 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) ................................................................................................. 60 
2.5.3.1 Retired Colonel Robert Kuunta Azumah ........................................................................... 60 
2.5.3.2 Retired Brigadier General Naapie Gumil ........................................................................... 60 
2.5.3.3 Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen ................................................................................................... 60 
2.5.3.4 Lawyer Ambrose Patrick Dery ........................................................................................... 61 
2.5.4 The People‟s National Convention (PNC) ................................................................................ 61 
2.5.4.1 Dr. Edward N. Gyader........................................................................................................ 62 
2.5.4.2 Tenku Charles .................................................................................................................... 62 
2.5.4.3 Bapuulu Dennis Dery ......................................................................................................... 62 
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2.5.4.4 Mr. Henry Fatchu ............................................................................................................... 63 
2.5.5 The Convention People‟s Party (CPP) ...................................................................................... 63 
2.5.5. 1 Seidu Adams Bila .............................................................................................................. 63 
2.5.5.2 Wilson Dabuo ..................................................................................................................... 64 
2.5.6 The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) ..................................................................................... 64 
2.5.7 The Democratic People‟s Party (DPP) ...................................................................................... 64 
2.5.8 The National Reform Party (NRP) ............................................................................................ 65 
2.5.9 The National Convention Party (NCP) ..................................................................................... 66 
2.6. CAMPAIGN MESSAGES AND STRATEGIES OF THE 2008 PARLIAMENTARY 
ELECTIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 66 
2.6.1 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) .............................................................................. 67 
2.6.2 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) ................................................................................................. 69 
2.6.3 The People‟s National Convention (PNC) ................................................................................ 72 
2.6.4 The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) ..................................................................................... 73 
2.6.5 The Democratic People‟s Party (DPP) ...................................................................................... 74 
2.6.6 The Convention People‟s Party (CPP) ...................................................................................... 75 
2.7. FUNDING OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS................................................................................... 75 
2.8. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 78 
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 79 
 
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................................ 85 
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF THE CONSTITUENCY .................... 85 
3.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................ 85 
3.2 LOCATION AND SIZE OF THE CONSTITUENCY .................................................................... 85 
3.3 HOW THE CONSTITUENCY WAS CREATED ........................................................................... 85 
3.4 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS ....................................................................................... 86 
3.5 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ................................................................................................. 87 
3.6 THE TRADITIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE ........................................................ 89 
3.7 TRADITIONAL AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND BELIEFS .............................................. 91 
3.8 POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE CONSTITUENCY .................. 93 
3.9 SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE ....................................................................................................... 95 
3.10 ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE ............................................................................. 97 
3.11 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 98 
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 99 
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CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................................ 101 
EXPLAINING CHANGE IN VOTER BEHAVIOUR -ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS ........................ 101 
4.1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 101 
4.2   TREND OF VOTING IN LAWRA CONSTITUENCY .............................................................. 101 
4.3 ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS .......................................................................................................... 103 
4.4 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ELECTORATES IN ELECTIONS ................................. 109 
4.5 FACTORS THAT AIDED NDC IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS FROM 1992-2004 ...... 110 
4.6 VOTING PATTERN IN 2004 AND 2008 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ........................... 116 
4.7 FACTORS THAT POSSIBLY LED TO THE CHANGE IN VOTING PATTERN .................... 120 
4.8 LESSONS THAT CAN BE LEARNT .......................................................................................... 146 
4.9 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 150 
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 151 
 
CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................................. 157 
SUMMARY, LESSONS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................... 157 
5.1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 157 
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ......................................................................................................... 157 
5.3 LESSONS THAT CAN BE LEARNT .......................................................................................... 164 
5.4 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 165 
5.5  RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................................................. 165 
5.5.1 For Policy Makers ................................................................................................................... 165 
5.5.2 For the NPP ............................................................................................................................. 166 
5.5.3 For the NDC ............................................................................................................................ 166 
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 167 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................ 168 
APPENDIX A ...................................................................................................................................... 181 
APPENDIX B ...................................................................................................................................... 187 
APPENDIX C ...................................................................................................................................... 188 
 
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LIST OF ABBREVIATION 
CDD  - Centre for Democratic Development 
CNC  -Centre for National Culture 
CPP  -Convention People‟s Party 
CSM  -Cerebro-spinal Meningitis 
CVC  -Citizens Vetting Committee 
DA  -District Assembly 
DACF  - District Assemblies Common Fund 
DCD  -District Co-ordinating Director 
DCEs  -District Chief Executives 
DFP  -Democratic Freedom Party 
DPP  -Democratic People‟s Party 
DWM  - December Women‟s Movement 
EC  -Electoral Commission 
LEAP  -Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty 
MMD  - Movement for Multi-party Democracy 
MP  -Member of Parliament 
NADMO -National Disaster Management Organization 
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NCP  -National Convention Party 
NDC  -National Democratic Congress 
NIP  -National Independence Party 
NPP  - New Patriotic Party 
NRP  - National Reform Party 
NYEP  -National Youth Employment Programme 
PHP  - People‟s Heritage Party 
PNC  -People‟s National Convention 
PNDC  -Provisional National Defence Council 
PNP  -People‟s National Party 
PP  -Progress Party 
RCC  -Regional Co-ordinating Council 
SP  -Senior Prefect 
SPSS  -Statistical Package for Social Sciences 
SSNIT  -Social Security and National Insurance Trust 
SWAPO - South West Africa People‟s Organization 
UST  - University of Science and Technology 
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WW I  - World War One 
WW II  -World War Two 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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LIST OF TABLES 
Table 4.1 Presidential results of NDC and NPP 1996-2008………………………….…… 101 
Table 4.2 Parliamentary results for NDC and NPP 1996-2004…………………………… 102 
Table 4.3 Parliamentary results for all parties in 2008……………………………………. 102 
Table 4.4 Distribution of Respondents by Gender……………………..………….. ….….. 103 
Table 4.5 Age Distribution of Respondents………………………………………... ……... 103 
Table 4.6 Marital Status of Respondents………………………………………….......... 104 
Table 4.7 Educational Level of Respondents………………………………………..…. 104 
Table 4.8 Religious Denomination of Respondents……………………………………..… 105 
Table 4.9 Occupation of Respondents………………………………………..……………. 106 
Table 4.10 Electoral areas chosen………………………………………………………….. 108 
Table 4.11 Voter Choice?................................................... ……………………………... 109 
Table 4.12  NDC popularity……………………………………………………................ 111 
Table 4.13  Rawlings factor? ………………………………………………………..…… 111 
Table 4.14  NDC- home party?............................................................................... ….….. 112 
Table 4.15 NDC incumbency?................................................................. ………….….. 113 
Table 4.16  NDC development oriented?................................................................. ….….. 114 
Table 4.17 NDC presented  popular candidates?.................................................... ….….. 115 
Table 4.18 Use of incumbency in 2008…………………………………………………. 120 
Table 4.19 Did incumbency help your choice in election 2008……………………….. 121 
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Table 4.20 NPP education campaign.................................................................... ……... 122 
Table 4.21 If yes, how?.............................................................................................. …..…. 123 
Table 4.22 If no how?................................................................................................ …… 124 
Table 4.23  Lack of resources led down Kunbour?................................................ ..…… 127 
Table 4.24 Overconfidence and complacency led down Kunbour....................................... 129 
Table 4.25 Personality led down Kunbour………………………………………........... 130 
Table 4.26 Kunbuor failure to deliver .................................................................. ……... 132 
Table 4.27 Rating of 2008 elections in Lawra........................................................ ..……. 144 
Table 4.28 Transparency of 2008 elections............................................................ ….….. 145 
Table 4.29  Rigged for which candidate?............................................................... ….….. 145 
Table 4.30 Power belongs to the electorates?.......................................................... ….….. 148 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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LIST OF FIGURES 
 
Figure 4.1 Voter choice  in 2004 ………………………………………………….…… 116 
Figure 4.2 Reason for voter choice in 2004………………………………………….... 117 
Figure 4.3 Voter choice in 2008………………………………………………………… 118 
Figure 4.4 Reasons for voter choice in 2008…………………………………………... 119 
Figure 4.5 Bede Ziedeng‟s impact on NDC…………………………………………….. 124 
Figure 4.6 If yes, how?....................................................................................... ……... 125 
Figure 4.7 If no, why?............................................................................................. ……... 16 
Figure 4.8 Incumbency of Ambrose Dery‟s government………………………….…… 135 
Figure 4.9 Personality of Ambrose Dery …………………………………………….…. 137 
Figure 4.10 Better campaign messages and strategies of Ambrose                                          
Dery win 2008 elections……………………………………………………… 139 
Figure 4.11 NPP vigorous education……………………………………………………. 141 
Figure 4.12 Rigging ………………………………………………..…………………….. 143 
Figure 4.13 Opposition winning in incumbent stronghold.………………………….…. 146 
Figure 4.14 Overconfidence and complacency……………………………………………. 147 
Figure 4.15 Maturity of the Ghanaian voter ……………………………………………. 149 
 
 
 
 
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ABSTRACT 
No doubt, the Lawra constituency is one of the strong holds of the National Democratic 
Congress (NDC) in Ghana. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that the party has won four 
consecutive parliamentary elections since the inception of the fourth republic. However, in the 
2008 parliamentary elections, the party lost the seat to the main opposition New Patriotic 
Party (NPP) for the first time. This loss shocked not only the NDC party but other keen 
political observers. This study sets out to investigate the factors that accounted for the change 
in voter behaviour  of the Lawra constituents in the 2008 parliamentary elections. The study 
was based on a survey conducted for 150 respondents. After the analysis of the survey results, 
the findings point to the fact that the change in the voter behaviour was as a result of the 
inaccessibility of the NDC incumbent member of parliament (MP) to and neglect of his 
constituents, his complacent posture and inability to deliver development to his constituents as 
against his main rival NPP candidate who was perceived to be more development oriented, 
sympathetic,  accessible to the needs of his constituents and aided by his government being 
incumbent, he was able to unseat the NDC MP. 
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CHAPTER ONE 
 INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 
 
1.1 INTRODUCTION 
The study of voter behaviour has a long and vibrant history starting from 1940 at the 
Columbia University where a team of social scientist led by Paul Lizardsfeld pioneered the 
application of survey research to the study of electoral behaviour (Bartels, 2008). This initial 
study of voter behaviour generated a swelling tide of euphoria and interest among the 
academia and for that matter a lot of scholars ventured into the study of voter behaviour. What 
really justified the study of voter behaviour?  
 
The answer to the aforementioned question may not be farfetched. First, voters play a key role 
in deciding and determining the outcome of election results. Second, according to Lago and 
Coma (2010) “Citizens elect their fellow citizens to represent their interest.” and “because 
voting is synonymous with legitimate exercise of governmental power, how people make their 
choice at election time and why they vote the way they do matters greatly irrespective of 
whether voters are “rational” or “irrational”, ignorant or informed, self-interested or public 
minded are all important” (Miroff et al., 1999).  
 
Indeed, in the United States Compbell et al. (1964) argued that the principal motivation 
behind voting in the US is party identification. However, this has been debunked by the 
research findings of Salmore and Salmore (1985) which point to candidates and campaigns as 
factors which play a major role in voter choice in the US. 
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In Ghana, while parliamentary contestants may argue that they are the most competent people 
to represent their constituents in Parliament, the important question that must be asked is that 
what factors are considered by voters in their choice of a parliamentary candidate to represent 
them at the National Assembly? Indeed since human behaviour is not static or constant, the 
reasons may vary from constituency to constituency and from time to time depending on the 
prevailing conditions. 
 
 Boafo-Arthur (2006) stated categorically that, “it is a well known fact that elections in 
African countries are very difficult to predict for several reasons including high levels of 
illiteracy, ethnic proclivities, religious attachment and personalities”. This means that in 
Africa, it is very difficult to predict election results with a high level of certainty.  
Notwithstanding this the same Boafo-Arthur (2006) opined that, in order to analyze the voting 
behavior of Ghanaians, several factors and issues do have influence on voter choice at both 
the national and constituency levels and these factors and issues include, social and economic 
development, ethnicity, gender, chieftaincy, the popularity of the candidates, the quality of 
campaigns organized by the contesting parties, strategies and tactics employed, the level of 
media coverage and many others.  
 
In the case of the NDC in the Lawra constituency, what could have accounted for the 
overwhelming support of voters for its parliamentary candidates from 1992 to 2004 but in 
2008 general elections they voted against the party‟s parliamentary candidate. The voters, 
however voted for the NDC candidate Atta-Mills in what is described in Ghanaian electoral 
parlance as “skit” and “blouse” voting. 
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Indeed a lot of work has been done on voter behavior in general and Ghana in particular.  
Some of such works include Gyimah-Boadi (2007), Ahiawordor (2001), Bluwey (1998), 
Asher (1988), and many others.  Whilst admitting the fact that a lot of lessons can be drawn 
from such works, it must also be noticed that most of the above mentioned works analyzed 
voting behavior but no efforts are made to explain what factors that can cause a change in 
voters‟ behavior.  
 
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM 
The Lawra Constituency is one of the strong holds of the National Democratic Congress 
(NDC) in the country and this is demonstrated by the fact that, the party has consistently won 
the parliamentary elections, as well as the presidential since the restoration of multiparty 
democracy under the 1992 Constitution.  The NDC has won the seat for four consecutive 
times, that is 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. However, in the December 2008 general elections, 
the NDC party lost this stronghold seat to its main rival party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP). 
 
The above indicates a dramatic change in the voting behavior of the electorate in the 
constituency and therefore presents a very interesting scenario for a research in that the NDC 
won the 2008 general elections nationwide but its parliamentary candidate rather lost in one 
of its strongholds, Lawra. The main problem of this thesis is to investigate the factors that 
accounted for the change in the usual massive voting for the NDC Parliamentary Candidate to 
that of the NPP by the electorates of Lawra constituency in the 2008 parliamentary elections. 
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This study poses very provocative and startling questions such as; what really changed? is it 
the party?, the candidates?, the socio-economic environment?, or the voters?. These are the 
questions that this thesis intends to address. 
 
1.3 HYPOTHESIS 
The study is based on the hypothesis that Popularity of a party and candidate incumbency are 
sufficient to win elections in Lawra constituency. 
 
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 
The research questions to be asked are the following: 
1. What factors generally explain the behavior of voters in the Lawra constituency? 
2. What reasons are responsible for the majority of voters always voting for the NDC prior to 
the 2008 parliamentary elections? 
3. What factors accounted for the change in voter behavior in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections in the constituency? 
4. What lessons can political parties, politicians and the general public learn from the change 
in voter behavior? 
 
1.5 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 
The main objective of the study is to explain why voters would keep faith with a party for a 
long period of time and all-of-a-sudden change their voting behaviour towards that party. In 
this vane the study is intended to:-  
a) Verify the determinants of voter choice in the Lawra constituency. 
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b) Discover the reasons why majority of voters voted for the NDC in parliamentary elections 
from 1992 to 2004. 
c) Ascertain the factors that accounted for the change in voter behavior in the 2008 
parliamentary elections in the constituency. 
d) Assess the possible lessons that can be learnt from the change in voter behavior in the 
2008 parliamentary elections in the Lawra constituency. 
 
1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW 
In response to the ever growing demand for democracy and good governance all over the 
world, both the developed and developing countries have undertaken a number of elections, 
some of which are considered rigged, others are manipulated but a considerable number of 
them are said to be free and fair. When democratic systems are in place, in free and fair 
elections, the voter is the ultimate decider of the election results and it is assumed that the 
choices they make during elections are meant to enhance their welfare. Due to this, scholars 
have also developed keen interest in writing on voter behaviour and as a result, a number of 
published materials exist on the subject. 
 
However, for the purpose of this study the literature would be analyzed at three levels. The 
first level would look at materials on voter behaviour not related to Africa, the second level 
will handle published works on voter behaviour on Africa and the last level would examine 
literature on voter behaviour on – the country in which this study is done. 
 
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1.6.1 Studies on General Voter Behaviour not Related to Africa 
Knowing the pattern of voting is very important for political parties, politicians and contesting 
candidates. This is because the ability to know the voting pattern of the electorate would assist 
them to strategize in order to capture or retain power. Consequently, voter behaviour has 
attracted the attention of many scholars in the world and a few notable ones are as follows. 
 
Based upon survey data collected between presidential victory of Harry Truman in 1948 and 
the re-election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, in order to determine the voting behaviour of 
America, Campbell et al (1964) asserted that, the principal motivation behind voting in the 
US is party identification and affiliation. This study and the current study share one thing in 
common and that is they both deal with a number of successive elections and for that matter 
this study (Campbell et al 1964) would serve as a guide to the current one. However, while 
the earlier study broadly dealt with the whole of America with its focus on presidential 
elections, this current study would narrow down to only one constituency of Ghana with its 
attention on parliamentary elections. 
 
Popkin (2010) in an attempt to explain how citizens gather, integrate and evaluate information 
they need to make up their mind in voting, stated that, voters use past knowledge and 
experience they come across in their daily activities as well as opinions of others they trust in 
forming their views about the candidates and parties they vote for in a given election and that 
most of these information come from campaigns and the media. Admittedly this study tells us 
the sources of information that voters need to make up their minds as to who to vote for, but it 
has however, failed to disclose to us what constitute that information. This current study 
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therefore would explore the reasons or factors that motivate or influence voters to vote in a 
certain pattern or direction and the conditions that may cause them to change that pattern. 
 
Citing examples of national issues, from Britain (Busteed, 1975), theorized that, there is a 
relationship between geographical location and voter behaviour. He explained that, the 
activities of state government, whether favourable or unfavourable towards certain regions or 
geographical locations in a state has a likely impact on the voting behaviour of those regions. 
In fact, this study is of utmost importance to the current study since it shows a relationship 
between geographical location and voting behaviour of people and since the current study is 
also dealing with just one geographical location of Ghana-Lawra constituency, then some 
lesson(s) can be drawn from the earlier study. However, unlike this study (Busteed, 1975) 
which used national issues to explain how the people of Britain, based on geographical 
location voted for parties as a nation, this current study would concentrate mainly on local 
issues that shaped the voting behaviour of only Lawra constituents, in their quest to choose 
their local representatives (MPs). 
 
Evans (2004) explained the various theories of voting and identified the following; group 
benefits, material gain, managerial competence, a party focusing on relevant issues and party 
ideology as the desires which may motivate voters to vote for parties or candidates (Evans, 
2004, p.6). However he was quick to add that the personality of candidate and the perception 
the public has about them and how the voter whether as individual or a group would benefit 
from a party programme or manifesto may cause the voter to change their vote in an election. 
 
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In the same vane Lago and Coma (2010) examined the factors that shaped the electoral 
behaviour in mass elections in Spain and arrived at the conclusion that voters changed their 
voting pattern after the founding elections in the 1970 because of change in party‟s entry 
decisions, party‟s campaign strategies and voters‟ predispositions. These studies (Evans 2004 
and Lago & Coma) fall in line with the current study since they all deal with change in voter 
behaviour. 
 
These earlier studies (Lago 2010 and Evans 2004) would therefore form the pivot around 
which the current study revolves. However unlike the earlier studies which used the whole 
nation as their study area, and used national issues to explain the change in voter behaviour, 
this current study would zero down on just one single constituency in Ghana and our main 
focus would be on local factors to explain the change that occurred in Lawra constituency. 
 
Patterson (2003) claimed that from 1960-2000, the interest of American voters to come out to 
vote or campaign for parties or even watch political debates on TV has declined drastically. 
He attributed the reasons to other things that equally compete for the attention and minds of 
voters, generational replacement, and changes in the electoral system, political parties and the 
media. This study only gives us the reasons why of late some American voters have lost 
interest in voting activities but noting is said about those who come out to vote especially the 
reasons that motivate them to vote for a particular party or candidate and under what 
conditions would the voters change their minds. This current study would address these gaps 
in the literature. 
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Miroff et al (1999) identified campaign messages, the image of the individual candidates and 
their performance and the media as the things that determine the choice of voters in American 
elections. In addition, they asserted that though voters in America may be affiliated to the 
Republicans or Democrats based on ethnic regional traditions, religious or family history, 
they were not blind loyalist. This is because campaigns, personalities and issues could move 
many to support candidates of other parties they are not affiliated to (Miroff et al 1999).  
 
Also Strong (1977) in an attempt to explain the mandate theory observed with keen interest 
that in America when voters feel that they are being governed poorly, they have the 
invaluable privilege of voting out one set of rulers and trying another set. These two studies 
(Miroff et al, 1999 and Strong, 1977) would shed some lights on the current studies since they 
try to explain a change in voter behaviour in America which is the subject matter of this 
current study. However, unlike the earlier studies which focused on elections in general in the 
whole of U.S.A by using national factors to explain the voting behaviour of American, the 
current study would only focus on only parliamentary elections in only one constituency in 
Ghana and its main targets would be to use local factors to explain the change in the 2008 
parliamentary elections, the laid down voting pattern of the Lawra constituents since 1992. 
 
Niemi and Weisberg (1984) postulated that though earlier writers have argued that parties and 
candidates determine the voting behaviour of people, issues in their view are the major 
determinant. This is because all parties and candidates put up issues during campaign for the 
electorate to make a choice. However, they equally admitted that, there are instances that 
voters make up their mind as to which party or candidate to vote for even before campaign 
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starts. Asher (1988) to a large extent agreed with earlier researchers on American voting 
patterns that party identification and affiliation played a major role in presidential elections, 
but he was fast to add that other factors such as the issues put forward by parties and the type 
of candidates put toward also play a role. The views of Asher (1988) and that of Niemi and 
Weisberg (1984) show the controversies surrounding voting behaviour and it points to the fact 
that, voting behaviour or pattern is shaped by varied and numerous factors and sometimes it is 
not easy to determine one single factor that is responsible for influencing voters choice. This 
current study would therefore take note of this and would be guided in that the earlier studies 
mainly gathered their findings from presidential elections and has remained silent on 
parliamentary. In addition, their main concern has been on what influence voters to vote for a 
party or a candidate in elections but nothing is said about what could cause voters to vote 
against a candidate or a party they initially preferred or voted for. This current study would 
therefore address these gaps by looking at parliamentary elections and factors that can 
possibly cause a change in voter behaviour. 
 
Salmore and Salmore (1985) opined that the earliest research findings especially the Michigan 
model which gives much prominence to party identification and affiliation as the major 
determinants of voter choice has declined tremendously. To prove this they cited example of 
the Republican Party, which is a minority party in America and which has won several 
elections in America to show that it is not the numbers affiliated to a party that matters but 
rather in their opinion which is based on research findings, it is candidates and campaigns 
which play a major role in voter choice in America elections. This study clearly shows how 
the American voter has changed from voting for a party or a candidate based on partisan 
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affiliation to voting for a party or candidate based on the quality of candidates and campaigns 
presented. This current study therefore seeks to find out whether it was also due to a decline 
in party affiliation and keen interest in the candidates and campaigns presented by parties that 
led to the change in the voter behaviour that occurred in the Lawra constituency in the 2008 
parliamentary elections or the change occurred as a result of other factors other than 
candidates and campaigns. 
 
Manza and Brooks (1999) observed that though there are many cleavages such as class, 
religion, occupation and many others the race cleavage has unquestionably been the most 
important of all social cleavages influencing all political processes and voter behaviour. 
Manza and Brooks (1999) only told us the major determinant of voter choice in America but 
has remained silence on what could possible cause the voter to change his choice made based 
on the cleavages. In addition, the issue of race does not even apply to Lawra. This current 
study therefore wants to ascertain not only the determinants of voter behaviour but also 
factors that can cause a change in voter behaviour. In addition, this current study also seeks to 
find out, in the absence of race, are there other social cleavages that informed the voting 
pattern in Lawra constituency. 
 
1.6.2 Studies of Voter Behaviour on Africa 
After independence and during the third wave of democratization, African nations have 
organized a number of elections for their citizens to vote the type of leaders they expect to 
lead them and as a result a number of published materials exist on voter behaviour in Africa. 
 
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Gyima-Boadi (2007) stated that election campaigns in Africa tended to be issueless and that 
any candidate who attempted to win election, based on campaign policies have woefully 
failed. This is because parties and candidates focused on personalities and symbols rather than 
policy vision and for that reason African elections are characterized by direct or indirect 
mobilization of ethnic votes partly reflecting the inability of parties to articulate better policies 
and this deepens the relevance of ethnicity in African society and to voters. Dovonan et al 
(2012) had a different view all together. To them the policy of a party and the health of either 
a state or national economy may do greatly influence the choice of voters but they were quick 
to add that, in all these factors, party affiliation is the main issue driving voter choice to 
debunked the “Michigan Model” which puts party identification and affiliation first and 
regard issue-based voting and personal factors as secondary. According to him opinion polls 
conducted on the 2009 South African elections indicates that party affiliation is declining and 
that what really influence people to vote is unemployment, crime, corruption, education and 
personal character of party leaders. 
 
These mentioned studies only indicated the factors that influenced voting behaviour in 
elections but nothing is said about what can influence the voter to change the identified voting 
behaviour, since no human behaviour is static. This current study would improve upon the 
above mentioned earlier ones by not only explaining the factors that influence the choice of 
voter behaviour but would also unearth the factors that can cause the voter to change his 
behaviour. 
 
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1.6.3 Studies of Voter Behaviour on Ghana 
Earlier scholars like Naomi Chazan, Yaw Twimasi and others who wrote on Ghanaaian 
elections tended to highlight more on the political parties, their leadership and the processes 
and outcomes of the elections (Debrah, 1998) unpublished, but very little attention is given to 
the voter who is the ultimate decider of the elections. Other scholars like Nugent (1995), 
Lukeman (1975) and Chazan (1998) who wrote on Ghanaian elections turned to focus on 
national rather than constituency level factors that influence election results (Debrah, 2006). 
 
Recent studies by Ayee (2001), Bluwey (2001), Frempong (2006), Debrah (2006) and others 
however concentrated on constituency political factors that shaped the electoral landscape at 
the constituency level. This current study drew a lot of useful lessons from them. As indicated 
earlier a number of scholars have written extensively on voter behaviour in Ghana and in this 
current study a number of them have been reviewed which include but not limited to the 
following. 
 
In trying to explain the nexus between the economy and regime change, Debrah (2008/9) 
observed that, Ghana politics since independence has been influenced by events on the 
economic front rather than popularized issues of ethnicity, regionalism and personal ambition. 
He contended that, majority of Ghanaians voted to effect a change of government in the 2000 
elections simply because they hoped that the new government will bring about improved 
economic living conditions.  
 
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Both Debrah (2008/9) and the current study have something in common that is to explain a 
change. However, whilst Debrah (2008/9) explains change in a national government, the 
current attempts to explain a change in a Member of Parliament in a single constituency.  
 
After analyzing the 1969 and 1979 elections, Chazan (1983) though admitted that the anti-
Ewe and anti-CPP sentiments coupled with better organizational base led to the success of the 
progress party, the study turned to highlight more on the political parties and the processes 
and results of the elections with no attention paid to the voter. It is this gap in the literature 
that the current study intends to fill. 
 
In trying to explain how Ahafo transitioned from local level to national politics, Dunn & 
Robertson (1973) observed that politics in Ahafo from 1951 was influenced by Ahafo rural 
background factors such as tarring of roads, potable water, school and hospital structures and 
so on. In other words, local interest was the central theme for politics in Ahafo independent of 
which political party was in power. However, by 1958, both the local people and their chiefs 
were so much concerned about which political party (NLM or CPP) controls national 
government. They were concerned about this because they depended on these parties for 
opportunities. 
 
This current study in trying to explain a change in voter behaviour in the Lawra constituency 
will also want to find out whether issues at the national front influence the choice of the 
electorate in the Lawra constituency.   
 
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Frempong (2006) examined the various forms in which ethnicity manifest itself in Ghanaian 
politics and after analyzing the 2004 general election results, he concluded that the voters 
voted on ethnic lines and this ethnic way of voting favoured the NPP and that is why it (NPP) 
won the 2004 elections but Anebo (2006) however disagrees with Frempong (2006) because, 
to him the closeness of the election results (52 for NDC & 48 for NPP) indicate that, the 
Ghanaian voters were matured and therefore voted on issues instead of on ethnic lines.  
 
The studies of Frimpong (2006) and Anebo (2006) were regional and national in nature. 
Though this is good for generalization, they did not give us any information on how each 
constituency voted. In addition their attention was on how the presidential candidates 
performed and nothing is said about how individual MPs faired in the 2004 elections. This 
current study would therefore focus on a constituency performance in parliamentary elections. 
Debrah (2006) opined that though the electorates in Upper West-Akim and New Juabeng 
were aware of the nature of the economy and the general performance of the incumbent 
government, local issues exercised a very influential role in voters‟ choice in New Juabeng 
and Upper Akim.  
 
Saaka (2006) seems to agree with Debrah (2006) when he (Saaka) argued that voters‟ choices 
in Bole-Bamboi and Damango-Daboya are invariably influenced by local political 
considerations and expectations especially whether those chosen can serve the needs of their 
constituents. In the same vane Brukum (2006) stated succinctly that, a major factor that 
influenced the choice of voters in Tamale North, Tolon and Kumbugu was the ability of a 
contesting candidate to attract development projects to the area.  
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Unlike Frempong (2006) and Anebo (2006) which are nationalistic in terms of scope and 
issues, the studies of Debrah (2006), Saaka (2006) and Brukum (2006) are specific to 
constituencies and dealt with local issues that influenced the choice of voters in those 
constituencies and this is in line with the current study which targets only the Lawra 
constituency in a bit to explain the factors which influence the choice of electorates in 
parliamentary elections. These studies only give us the factors that influenced the choice of 
voters in only the 2004 elections and no reference is made to past election(s) for us to 
determine whether there has been a change in factors identified or the voting behaviour 
noticed. This current study would therefore deal with successive elections to establish a 
voting pattern and explain why that pattern was broken in 2008.  
 
Aside the local factors that have been identified above, another school of thought believed 
that it takes both local and national issues to influence the choice of voters in elections. In this 
line Asante (2006) observed that while “local territoriality” may be deemed to have influence 
on the choice of voters in Mampong and Effiduase-Asakore constituencies, ethno-religious 
and migrant considerations were vital in voters‟ choice in Ejura-Sekyeredumase. He agreed 
that even though voters‟ choices were also influenced by national development issues, the 
need for local development also played a role.  
 
Ninson (2006) identified two key issues; namely, good policies to develop the country and the 
nature of candidates presented as the factors that influenced the preferences of voters in 
Ayawaso West Wuogon and Dome-Kwabenya in the 2004 elections. Stated differently, the 
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NPP was construed as capable of facilitating development and the candidates were perceived 
as being able to initiate development in the constituencies. 
 
Bluwey (2001) in an attempt to explain the determinants of political choice in Koforidua and 
New Juabeng North in the 2000 elections explained that the voters‟ choices were based on 
rational decisions rather than on “habit” or “bandwagon” voting. He identified neglect of 
Koforidua in terms of infrastructure development and the bad state of the economy as some of 
the factors that led to the defeat of NDC in the two constituencies. To Boafo-Arthur (2006), 
the need for employment, good educational infrastructure and good healthcare are the main 
issues that influenced the choice of voters in Mfantsepem West, based on this he accepted that 
both national and constituency issues influenced the choice of voters and that shows the 
closeness between national and local development. 
 
Ahiawordor (2001) in his bit to explain voter behaviour in Ho central and Ho East 
constituencies observed a high level of illiteracy among respondents and as a result the 
respondents did not know of any other party apart from the NDC. He conceded that ethnicity 
in the voting pattern cannot be ignored since majority massively voted for the NDC on ethnic 
basis. In his attempt to show a link between the economy and voting behaviour in Mfatseman 
West and Cape Coast constituencies in a pre-election survey, Boafo-Arthur (2001) reported 
that respondents listed unemployment, high inflation and the rapid depreciation of the cedi as 
the problems facing the country and unemployment was their local development problem and 
based on these identified problems, it was projected that the NDC would lose the 2000 
elections which really did happen. 
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Though the above studies are constituency based, they are limited to only a single election 
and no attempt has been made to chronologically compare successive elections to establish a 
concrete pattern of voting. In addition, these studies only explain voter choice and not a 
change in voter behaviour. This current study would therefore close up the loopholes in these 
studies by studying five successive elections (1992-2008) to establish a pattern of voting 
behaviour in Lawra and to also explain why that pattern was broken or changed in the 2008 
parliamentary elections.  
 
On the part of Ephson (2008) he noted that the presidential elections in central region, the 
NPP had a gap of 5.9% over the NDC in the 2000 elections which later increased to 19.3% in 
the 2004 elections. In the Western Region the gap was 6.6% in 2000 which also increased to 
15.7% in 2004 elections. However, opinion polls conducted in July 2008 and March 2008 has 
revealed that, the gap between the NPP and the NDC in general has dwindled from 8% to 3%. 
Ephson (2008) succeeded in telling us how voters‟ preference for the NPP increased from the 
year 2000 to 2004 but after that, the preference of voters for the NPP dwindled but has failed 
to tell us the factors that accounted for the dwindled fortunes of the NPP after 2004. This 
current study would improve upon Ephson (2008) by explaining the factors that accounted for 
a certain voting pattern and why that pattern go changed in the 2008 parliamentary elections. 
 
1.7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 
A good theory is necessary to provide a sound basis and sharper insight into any work of 
academic endeavour ( Owusu-Mensah (2001) unpublished. As a result there is the need to 
provide a theory to explain the basis of this research. 
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In fact, a lot of voter behavior models and theories exist. For example the Socio-
Psychological model of voting behavior which uses party identification to explain how people 
vote, the social structural theories which postulates that the individual is imbued with 
attitudes, values, desires and beliefs, which tend to influence the way he/she votes and many 
other theories and models. 
However, this study would make use of the rational choice paradigm of Downs (1957) and the 
voter-led theory propounded by Rose and McAllister (1990). Indeed these two theories best 
explain the circumstances of this study. 
 
1.7.1 The Rational Choice Paradigm 
The rational choice paradigm basically assumes that the motivation for an individual to vote 
or not and how to vote is calculated on the benefits to be derived from the preferred decision. 
Stated differently, voters decide on how to vote on the basis of what they expect to get from 
voting. The theory further states that in trying to vote each potential outcome has a benefit or 
a cost and the voter being rational will choose the one which benefits him/her most. But one 
may ask what is meant by rationality? According to Downs, rationality means “engaging in 
pursuits of goals in the most reasonable way possible”. He went further to give five (5) 
criteria to buttress his definition of rationality and they are; 
1. The individual is able to make a decision when presented with alternatives 
2. The individual is able to rank his/her preferences in order  
3. His/her preference ranking is transitive (i.e. he/she prefers alternative 1 to alternative 2 
and alternative 2 to alternative 3 etc. and ultimately he/she will prefer alternative 1 to 
alternative 3) 
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4. The individual will always choose the most preferred alternative 
5. If presented with the same alternatives at different times under the same 
circumstances, the individual will always make the same decision. To avoid any 
contradiction, Downs further reduced rationality to only political and economic 
motivation and nothing else. This means that any voter who decides how to vote is 
based on political and economic considerations.  
 
The rational paradigm portrays voters as active in the sense that they behave like consumers 
in a market who are expressing their choices amongst the available policy options presented 
to by parties or candidates. Here, voting is seen as instrumental rather than habitual. In other 
words, it is a means to an end. 
 
From a typical economic supply and demand point of view Downs argued further that, 
rational voters only exist if the parties they vote for are also rational and he quickly added 
that, indeed these parties are rational since they always aim at maximizing their utility, which 
is to win power to control or participate in government. Whereas government wants to 
maintain power, opposition wants to displace government and for both government and 
opposition victory is their only sole goal and nothing else like philanthropic considerations. 
Downs further argued that during elections time voters do not look at parties per se and vote 
but that voters look at the government that was incumbent at the election time. These voters 
would calculate what the government will provide them in terms of utility if it stays in power. 
Subsequently they also look at what the opposition will offer them if it were in power and 
whichever provides the higher utility wins the votes of electorates. The rational voter had 
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noting in mind apart from what he/she gets out of voting- there is no broader consideration 
and no party biases. 
1.7.2 Weaknesses of the Rational Choice Paradigm 
A lot of weaknesses exist in the theory  
1. It is not the case that individuals has preference ranking all the time, because the 
reality is that certain decisions are made sometimes on whims. 
2. The issue of voters, voting on only economic and political motivation in reality 
does not exist, other factors do influence voters in their voting process. 
3. The absence of party bias is not practicable and possible since human beings are 
subject to biases 
4. Lastly the issue of government and opposition only aiming at victory and nothing 
like philanthropic ends does not exist in reality. Indeed, all over the world 
government and even opposition seeks the welfare of the citizens in order to retain 
or capture power respectively. So therefore government and opposition have an 
interest in responding to voter‟s desires and wishes if they are to win power.  
Based on this and other weaknesses of the Rational Choice Paradigm, voter led 
theory of Rose and McAllister (1990) is added to strengthen the theoretical base of 
the study. 
1.7.3 Voter-Led Theory 
In summary, the voter-led theory propounded by Rose and McAllister (1990) assumes that the 
individual voter and his electoral choices constitute the principal influence on the fate or 
performance of parties in one election after other. In other words the ability of a party or 
candidate to satisfy the electoral choices of the electorates in one election, would determine its 
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or his/her performance in subsequent one(s). In this case it is the electorate who determine the 
directions in which parties or candidates ought to go and for that matter the voter is 
considered sovereign since they determine what politicians or parties should do. The theory 
further states that voters would therefore accordingly cast their votes in favour of the 
candidate or party who best approximately meet their expectations and aspirations. 
 
1.7.4 How the Rational Choice and the Voter-Led Theories Explain the Study 
The rational choice paradigm and the voter-led theories were used because they best explain 
and apply to this study in the following ways: 
 From the data gathered from the survey a larger majority of 59.3% of the sampled 
electorate said they would vote for candidate based on development issues. This 
means their votes are influenced by what they expect to gain, which is development 
for their place. This is in line with the rational choice idea that voters decide on how to 
vote based on the basis of what they expect to get from voting.  
 Again, the voters voted for Ambrose Dery of the NPP to snatch the seat from 
Benjamin Kunbour of the NDC because, they think that this time (in 2008) voting for 
Kumbour Benjamin will cost them since he failed to meet their expectations but voting 
for Ambrose Dery will bring them much benefits since in their estimation he will 
bring them development. This really coincides with the rational choice mentality that 
in trying to vote each potential outcome has a benefit or a cost and the voters being 
rational will choose the one which benefits them most. 
 Apart from voters being rational Downs also argued that Political parties are equally 
also rational because they always aim at maximizing their utility which is to win 
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power or participate in government. Whereas government wants to maintain power, 
opposition wants to displace government. All political parties in Lawra are rational 
according to the Downs proposition so they put up candidates in the 2008 
parliamentary elections; they spent resources to campaign to capture the minds of 
voters. While Benjamin Kunbour was trying seriously to maintain power for the third 
time, Ambrose Dery of the NPP used all the advantages at his disposal to dislodge the 
incumbent MP and really he did. Ambrose Dery made sure he attended almost ball 
public functions in Lawra, co-opted disgruntled NDC members into his camp, 
attended to the personal needs of some of the electorates and so on. These were not 
only done on philanthropic basis but because he want to win power. 
 Also from data gathered from the study, it is clear that in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 
the electorates of Lawra voted for the NDC parliamentary candidates as against other 
parties because the NDC was more popular and also presented popular candidates and 
these conditions remained for a long time and for that matter the people also voted the 
same way. This is exactly in line with principle five (5) of Downs theory which states 
that; If presented with the same alternatives at different times under the same 
circumstances, the individual will always make the same decision which ,means if 
circumstances change the voters will also change and that is exactly happen in 2008 
elections. The circumstances changed; that is Kunbour failed to deliver, he did not 
have enough resources to meet the demands of his electorates as compared to 
Ambrose Dery whose government was in power and for that matter he has more 
resources to meet the economic needs of his voters. 
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Downs further argued that during election time the voters do not just look at parties and 
vote but that they rather evaluate the incumbent government before voting. In this case 
they evaluate what the incumbent government will provide them in terms of utility if it 
stays in power and also look at what opposition will offer if it were in power and 
whichever offer them a higher utility gets the votes of the electorates. Base on this the 
electorate of Lawra evaluated the work of Benjamin Kunbour (NDC) for the past and also 
evaluated what Ambrose Dery (NPP) is capable of doing for them if he is made the MP 
for the area and decided Ambrose Dery will help them more, so they gave their votes to 
him. In other word Ambrose Dery approximately meets the expectations and aspirations 
of the electorates as elucidated by the voter-led theory. 
 
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 
The research will be significant in a number of ways: 
1. Political parties would draw a lot of useful lessons from the research findings and this 
would help them maintain the faith of voters in elections. 
2. The findings and recommendations would be useful to policy makers and a guide to 
future parliamentary candidates in politics. 
3. The findings of this research would also add to the already existing body of 
knowledge on voter behavior in elections. 
 
1.9 METHODOLOGY 
Methodology refers to the way something is done. In research it could be referred to as the 
steps that will lead you into finding answers to puzzles or research problems. Methodology is 
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important for a number of reasons. First it serves as a guide to the researcher as to which 
direction he/she must proceed. Secondly, it enables others to follow the research imaginarily 
though they have not been to the field and lastly it enables the researcher and other persons to 
retrace your steps at any point in time. 
The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methodology. This is because 
none of these provide sufficient methodological directions to the study. The study adopted 
survey and face to face interview methods to collect the relevant data from the required 
respondents. Seventeen (17) key individuals and twenty-one (21) electorates were interviewed 
face to face whilst 150 questionnaires were administered to respondents. In fact, this study is 
conducted to find out the reasons for a change in voter behavior in the Lawra constituency in 
the 2008 parliamentary elections. The study was carried out using a number of research 
methods to collect relevant data. Two (2) main principal methods of data collection that is 
primary sources and secondary sources of data collection influenced vary greatly the research 
process.  
The primary data was collected using a face to face interview and a questionnaire as the 
research instrumensts. Before designing the questionnaire the researcher had a baseline 
interaction and face to face interview with opinion leaders. 
1. An NDC elder 
2. The NDC constituency propaganda secretary 
3. NPP constituency secretary 
4. PNC Constituency Chairman 
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5. CPP Constituency Chairman 
6. 2008 parliamentary candidate for DPP 
7. The administrator of the Lawra MPs office 
8. Ex- returning officer – Lawra Constituency 
9. The Lawra district planning officer 
10. Political Analyst 
11. An assembly member of the Lawra District Assembly 
12. NPP regional secretary 
13. NPP activist 
14. Two elders each from the Lawra and Nandom chief palace (four elders in all). 
The researcher further interviewed twenty-one (21) electorates within the constituency. All 
these took place from December 5th – 14th 2011. Three reasons accounted for these interviews 
and interactions: First, to generate the issues that will be raised on the questionnaire from the 
natives themselves instead of the researcher imposing his ideas on them. Secondly, to be able 
to gather first hand information for chapters two and three which basically deals with the 
history of parliamentary elections in the area and the profile of the constituency respectively. 
It was from this interaction and interview that the researcher teased out the main issues which 
were used to design the questionnaire. Thirdly, the face-to-face interview afforded the 
researcher to gain more detailed information  on the issues being interrogated more than what 
the questionnaire could offer. 
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The questionnaire was administered to 150 registered voters who have voted at least in the 
2004 and 2008 parliamentary elections. All the questionnaires were administered by the 
researcher personally. The reasons for administering the questionnaires personally are not fair 
fetched. First, it convinces the researcher that the questionnaires were really administered to 
respondents and that no one sat in the comfort of his/her room to answer these questionnaires 
for him. Secondly, it enabled the researcher to recover at hundred percent rate, all the 150 sent 
out questionnaires and thirdly it afforded the researcher the opportunity to listen and gain 
insight into all the comments and reactions that respondents made on the issues that were 
raised in the questionnaire. These comments and reactions were of great importance to the 
researcher during the interpretation and explanation of the research findings. 
Before the administration of the questionnaires, the researcher randomly selected ten (10) 
electoral areas out of fifty four (54) for the questionnaires to be administered there. How was 
this done? First, the constituency was divided into two traditional areas; Lawra and Nandom. 
Lawra has 29 electoral areas while Nandom has 25. All the names of the electoral areas in 
Lawra were written on small pieces of paper and folded into a container and shaken together. 
Same was done to those of the Nandom traditional area. One person was invited to pick five 
each from the two traditional areas at random. For Lawra the following electoral areas were 
randomly selected:  
1. Babile  
2. Lawra Zongo 
3. Zinkaa/Yagtuuri 
4. Zambo 
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5. Danko 
For the Nandom traditional area the following were the electoral areas selected: 
6. Bu 
7. Baseble, which coincidently is the home town of Benjamin Kunbuor 
8. Nandom West 
9. Kogle 
10. Ko 
  The reason for the Lawra-Nandom divide was based on a political reason and the reason is 
this, though the constituency is a strong hold of the NDC, the support base of the NDC is 
much stronger in Nandom than in Lawra traditional area. Again though the constituency is not 
an NPP stronghold, the weakness of the NPP is less in the Lawra traditional area than in 
Nandom. To be fair to the two major political parties there was the need to get a fair 
representation. 
The ten (10) selected electoral areas were listed down and they constituted the areas for the 
questionnaire administration.  
Upon entering each of the ten (10) electoral areas selected, the first house on the right was 
selected and from there on every other house was selected for the questionnaire 
administration. This continued until all the questionnaires designated for that electoral area 
were exhausted. In fact 15 questionnaires each were administered in all the ten (10) selected 
electoral areas. 
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Upon selecting a house, a purposive sampling technique was used to select a registered voter 
from that house who has voted at least in the 2004 and 2008 parliamentary elections. The 
reason for selecting registered voters who have voted in at least 2004 and 2008 was that the 
NDC wining spree ended at the 2004 elections and 2008 an opposition took over. This is to 
find out whether indeed, they did change their pattern of voting or not and if they did change 
or maintained it, why did they do so? 
The second source of data for this research included published books, journals, unpublished 
dissertations and theses, news papers and any other published material that the researcher 
came across to be relevant to the research. There was a serious library research for relevant 
materials from the above mentioned sources from the Political Science Department library, 
the Balme Library, Commonwealth and Legon Hall Libraries, African Studies Library, The 
Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) library. The internet was also consulted for 
materials on the study area. The secondary data in the form of library materials and the 
internet sources constituted a larger part of the data for the desktop work, which is the 
theoretical framework and literature review.  
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the primary data that was 
collected into percentages, frequency tables, and bar charts. 
These percentages, frequencies, and bar charts from the SPSS was given flesh in the form of 
interpretation and explanation. Here comments made by respondents during the questionnaire 
administration were factored in. 
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In this vane some amount of comparing and contrasting was done to ascertain whether some 
relationship existed among certain variables and also ultimately found out the predominant 
factors that led to the change in voter behavior in the 2008 parliamentary elections. 
After the interpretation, the research findings were summarized and conclusions drowned. 
 
1.10 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 
Funding was one of the problems encountered in this research, since it involved a lot of 
transportation cost to travel from Accra to Lawra to collect data. Due to this financial 
constraint the research could not be extended to cover a larger population. The second 
problem was that most of the communities in the Lawra constituency are rural and sometimes 
rural people are cautious or suspicious of people who come to them for information and 
therefore were unwilling to either answer questions or give the right answers to questions.  
Their fear was based on two reasons.  First, they do not want to give information that may be 
used in future to victimize any community member and secondly some suspect that 
researchers collect information from them and use such data to support revenue agencies to 
tax them. However the researcher assured them of maximum anonymity and confidentiality 
since the main purpose of this data collection was purely academic.  These problems did not 
in any way affect the authenticity and reliability of the research findings. 
 
1.11 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 
This thesis is organized in five chapters; Chapter one deals with the introduction and 
conceptual framework. 
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Chapter two - The History of parliamentary election in Lawra constituency from 1992 to 
2008, the parties, candidates, campaign issues and messages involved.  
 Chapter three - The social, economic and political structure of the Lawra Constituency. 
Chapter four - The presentation and analysis of research findings.  
Chapter five - Summary, conclusions and recommendations. 
 
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1. Bartels, L.M., (2008). The study of electoral behaviour. Available at 
http/www.princetonedu/bartels/electoral behsviour.pdf. Access on 07/02/2012. 
2. Lago, I. and Coma, F. M.  (2010, p8), Three Decades of Elections in Spain: The causal 
chain of voting Behaviour available at www.upf.educ/grcp/pdf/documents/2010/ 
three decades of elections in Spain pdf assessed on 28/02/12. 
3.  Miroff B. et al (1999). Debating Democracy: A reader in American politics 2nd edition, 
Hougton Mifflin Company, New York. 
4. Campbell et al (1964). The American voter, New York: John Wiley. 
5. Salmore, S. A. and Salmore, B. G. (1985, p4-9). Candidates, parties and campaigns: 
Electoral Politics in America, CQ Press, Washington DC. 
6. Boafo-Arthur, K. (2006). Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in 
Perspective Vol. II freedom publications, Accra-Ghana 
7. Gyimah-Boadi, E. (2007). Political Parties and Patronage: Random Thoughts on Neo-
patrimonialism and African Decentralization in Basedau, Erdmann, G.& Mehler, 
A. (eds.) votes, money and violence; political parties and Elections in Sub-
Saharan Africa, University of Kwazulu-Natal Press  South Africa. 
8. Ahiawordor, SKM (2001). Explaining voter Behaviour in Ho and Ho-East constituencies 
of the Volta Region in Ghana‟s 2000 Elections in Ayee, JRA (ed). Deepening 
Democracy in Ghana: Politics of the 2000 Elections, Vol II constituency studies, 
freedom publication, Accra-Ghana. 
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9. Bluwey, G.K. (1998) “Determinance of Political Choice in Agona West and Effutu 
Constituencies in the Central Region, In Ayee, J.R.A. (ed) The 1996 general 
elections and the democratic consolidation in Ghana. 
10. Asher, H. B. (1988). Presidential Elections and American Politics: Voters, candidates and 
campaigns since 1952, the Dorsey Press, U.S.A. 
11. Popkin, S. L. (2010). The Reasoning Voter (1991) in Jillson, C. and Robertson D. B. (ed) 
perspectives on American Government: Readings in political Development and 
Institutional Change, Routledge, New York. 
12. Busted, M.A. (1975) Geography and voting Behaviour, Oxford University Press, 
London. 
13. Evans, J.A.J (2004) Voters and Voting, Sage Publications Ltd: London 
14. Patterson, T.E. (2003). The Vanishing Voter:  Public Involvement in an Age Uncertainty, 
New York Vintage Books. 
15. Strong, D. S. (1977). Issue Voting And Party Realignment, University of Alabama Press. 
16. Niemi, R. G and Weisberg, H. F. (1984). Controversies in voting. Behaviour, C Q press, 
Washington DC. 
17. Manza, J. and Brooks, C. (1999) Social Cleavages and political change. Voter 
Alignments and U.S. party coalition, Oxford University Press, New York. 
18. Dovonan, T.,Mooney, C., Smith, D.A. (2012) 2nd ed. State and Local Politics; Institutions 
and Reforms: The Essentials. Wads Worth Cengage Learning, U.S.A.  
19. Debrah E. (1998), Unpublished. Indices of free and Fair Elections: A Performance 
Appraisal of Ghana‟s Electoral Commission 19993-1996. A Thesis Submitted to 
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the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana in Partial Fullfilment 
of the Requirements for the Award of Master Degree. 
20. Debrah E. (2006), Election 2004 and the Politics of Upper West Akim and New Juabeng 
Constituencies in Buaffo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 
Elections in Perspective, Volume II. Freedom Publications, Accra – Ghana. 
21. Debrah E. (2008/09), The Economy and Regime Change in Ghana 1992-2004: Ghana 
Social Science Journal, Vol 5 & 5 Nos 1 & 2, pp84-113. 
22. Chazan N. (1983), An Anatomy of Ghanaian Politics: Managing Political Recession 
1969-1982, West View Press, USA. 
23. Dunn J. & Robertson A. F. (1973), Dependence and Opportunity; Political Change in 
Ahafo, Campridge University Press. 
24. Frempong, K. D. A. (2006). Ethnicity, Democracy and Ghana‟s election 2004 in Boafo-
Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective 
Vol II freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
25. Anebo, KGF (2006). Issues Versus Ethnic Voting in the 2004 Elections in Boafo-Arthur 
(ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective Vol II 
freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
26. Debrah, E. (2006). Election 2004 and the politics of Upper West Akim and New Juabeng 
constituencies in Boafo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 
Elections in Perspective Vol II freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
27. Saaka, Y. (2006). Determinants of choice in Electoral Politics: The Case of the Bole-
Bamboi and Damango-Daboya constituencies in Ghana‟s 2004 General 
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Elections in Boafo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 
Elections in Perspective Vol II freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
28. Brukum, N., J.,K. (2006). The presidential and parliamentary Elections in Ghana: A 
study of the Tamale North, Tolon and Kumbungu constituencies in Boafo-Arthur 
(ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective Vol II 
freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
29. Asante, R. (2006). Local Factors that shaped the 2004 General Elections in Ejura 
Sekyedumase, Mampong and Effiduase-Asokore constituencies in Boafo-Arthur 
(ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective Vol II 
freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
30. Ninson, A. K. (2006). Dome-Kwabenya and Ayawaso West Wuogon constituencies: A 
study in voter choice in the December 2004 Elections in Boafo-Arthur (ed.) 
Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective Vol. II 
freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
31. Bluwey, K.J (2001) Determinance of Political Choice in Agona Koforidua and New 
Juabeng north constituencies in 2000 general elections, In Ayee, J.R.A. (ed) 
Deepening  Democracy in  Ghana: Politics of the 2000 elections, Vol II, 
Freedom Publications Ltd Ghana. 
32. Boafo-Arthur, K. (2006). The 2004 General Elections. A comparative Analysis of 
Election Survey in Mfantseman West, Mfantseman East and Cape Coast 
constituencies in Boafo-Arthur (ed.) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 
Elections in Perspective Vol. II freedom publications, Accra-Ghana 
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33. Boafo-Arthur, K. (2001). „Survey Patterns and Election Outcome‟ in Mfantseman West 
and Cape Coast constituencies in Ayee, JRA (ed). Deepening Democracy in 
Ghana: Politics of the 2000 Elections, Vol II constituency studies, freedom 
publication, Accra-Ghana. 
34. Ephson, B. (2008) The countdown to 2008 Elections. Allied News Ltd, Accra-Ghana. 
35. Owusu-Mensah, I. (2001) unpublished, Ghana‟s National Response to Globalization: A 
Focus on Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). A Thesis submitted 
to the University of Ghana, Legon in partial fulfillment of the requirement for 
the award of a Master of philosophy in Political Science. 
36. Downs, A. (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy, New York: Happer and Row  
37. Rose, R. & McAllister L. (1990). The loyalties of voters , Sage, London.  
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER TWO 
HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN LAWRA CONSTITUENCY 
FROM 1992 TO 2008, THE PARTIES, CANDIDATES, CAMPAIGN ISSUES AND 
MESSAGES INVOLVED 
 
2.1 INTRODUCTION 
This chapter aims at tracing the history of parliamentary elections in Lawra, especially under 
the Fourth Republic. In addition the perception that the electorate have towards the various 
political parties that contested the elections, the political pedigree of each party‟s candidate 
and the campaign messages and strategies of the 2008 parliamentary elections would be 
critically examined. 
 
2.2 HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN LAWRA BEFORE THE 
FOURTH REPUBLIC 
Before the ushering in of the Fourth Republic, other earlier Parliamentary elections took place 
in the Lawra Constituency. The first of its kind took place on the 15th of June, 1954 (Larvie & 
Badu 1996, p.1) when Abeifaa Karbo from the United Party (UP) won the elections and 
retained his post until 1965 when the National Assembly was dissolved making Ghana  a one 
party state (Alla-Adjetey 2004, p.20). This forced him back home to concentrate on his 
chieftaincy matters. In his place the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) government elected 
G.W. Wononuo as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1965 to 24th February 1966 when the 
CPP government was overthrown by coup d‟etat (Alla-Adjetey 2004, p.20). With the 
restoration of multiparty democracy under the Second Republic, Sylvester Sanziri became the 
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MP on the ticket of the Progress Party (PP) from 1969 to 13the January 1972 when the 
Second Republic under Busia‟s regime was also overthrown by a military regime (Ayensu 
and Darkwa, 2006 p4). Again, when Ghana returned to the path of democracy for the third 
time, Harry Gandaa won the parliamentary elections in 1979 on the People National Party 
(PNP) ticket to become the fourth MP for the area. His tenure of office came to an abrupt end 
on 31st December 1981 when the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military 
regime overthrew the government of the day (Alla-Adjetey 2004, p.20; Lawra MP‟s office, 
2012). From that year, parliament was in suspension for almost eleven years until 1992 when 
parliamentary elections were organized under the Fourth Republican Constitution. Indeed 
Kwame Boafo-Arthur described this historical journey as “Ghana‟s Democratic life since 
independence has been punctuated by military interventions of all kinds” (Boafo-Arthur 2006, 
p.33). 
 
2.3 HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN LAWRA UNDER THE 
FOURTH REPUBLIC FROM 1992 - 2008 
The 1992 parliamentary elections nationwide was slated for 28th December and according to 
the electorates, only three (3) political parties fielded candidates for the parliamentary 
elections in the constituency. They were the NDC, the NPP and the PNC who fielded Ken 
Kunfaa, Retired Col. Azumah and Dr. Edward N. Gyader respectively (Interview with B.B. 
Suurwire, 2011). However, the opposition argued that the NDC had rigged the November 
presidential elections hence, the opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary elections 
nationwide. For this reason retired col. Azumah of NPP and Dr. Edward Gyader of PNC both 
withdrew from the race, leaving the single candidate Ken Kunfaa of NDC. On 28th December 
1992, the electorates endorsed Ken Kunfaa of NDC as the winner of the parliamentary 
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elections in the constituency. Voting started at about 7 am and ended at 5pm. All the pooling 
stations had NDC party agents whilst the opposition was totally absent. By 10:45pm, the 
returning officer Mr. Jacob M. Bagonluur had finished compiling the results and declared Ken 
Kunfaa as the winner of the elections since the electorates have overwhelmingly endorsed 
him. There was wild and spontaneous jubilation from NDC members, supporters and 
sympathizers.  
 
The second parliamentary elections in the constituency took place on 7th Dec. 1996. This 
second election was the first competitive parliamentary election held under the 1992 
Constitution since the first one that was held on 28th Dec. 1992 was boycotted by most 
opposition parties (Ayensu and Darkwa, 2006 p.72; Oquaye 2006, p.17) leaving only the 
NDC to compete with no one in the constituency. The NPP, PHP, NIP had no representation 
in parliament because they boycotted the elections (Alla-Adjetey 2004, p.27) for the 1996 the 
opposition participated fully(Alla-Adjetey 2004, p.27; Larvie & Badu 1996, p.15). 
 
Prior to the 1996 parliamentary, elections a number of activities, took place. One of them was 
the nationwide registration exercise that was carried out for people who did not have the 
opportunity to register in1992. This was done in March 1996, later on parties put up 
candidates for the parliamentary contest in Lawra. These parties include the NDC, the NPP 
the PNC and NCP. Out of the four mentioned political parties it was only the NCP that was a 
new entrant in the race, since the other three parties fielded candidates in the 1992 
parliamentary elections. Again out of the three parties that contested the 1992 parliamentary 
elections, it was only the PNC that maintained their 1992 parliamentary candidate in the 1996 
parliamentary elections in the person of Dr. Edward N. Gyader. The NDC candidate was Mr. 
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Anthony Bundong Koyiri who replaced Ken Kunfaa. This was a decision of the party that, 
since Ken Kunfaa comes from Nandom traditional area and has served for one term, the 
opportunity should also be given to an indigene from Lawra traditional area to also serve the 
people. The NPP also went in for Mr. Naapie Gumil to replace retired Col. Azumah since he 
was not interested to contest the 1996 parliamentary elections. The NCP fielded Mr. Ishmael 
Pegkuu Karbo from the Lawra chief palace as their candidate. Later on however, pressure was 
mounted on him and he withdrew his candidature in favour of Naapie Gumil, the NPP 
candidate. 
 
The NDC candidate, Mr. Anthony Bundong Koyiri entered the race with a lot of advantages. 
One, his party was in power and he had access to resources and all the advantages that is 
associated with incumbency. In most African countries incumbents enjoy an enormous 
advantage by virtue of their control of financial purse-string (Nugent 2007, p.253). In fact 
Boafo-Arthur (1998, p365) noted with keen concern the report of the commonwealth observer 
team for the 1996 elections which states that there was a big disparity between the resources 
available to the incumbent NDC and those at the disposal of the opposition parties clearly 
shown in larger number of cars, flags and bill boards.   
Secondly the constituency was the stronghold of the NDC, thirdly, as the regional chairman 
for Centre for National Culture, he was popular not only in the constituency but also in the 
region. The only contestant that posed a threat to Mr. Bundong was the PNC candidate, Dr. 
Edward N. Gyader. Dr Gyader was a renowned medical Doctor from Nandom, but stationed 
at the Wa Regional Hospital. Over the years, he has saved a lot of lives due to his in-depth 
knowledge in his profession. Due to lack of qualified Doctors in most District hospitals in 
Upper West, all complicated and serious cases were referred to Dr. Gyader at the Wa 
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Regional hospital. Indeed any patient who visited the regional hospital wanted to see Dr. 
Gyader. The popularity of Dr. Gyader was not limited to the hospital but all over Nandom. 
Instead of this popularity working in favour of Gyader, the NDC candidate used it against him 
(Gyader). Any where the NDC candidate went to campaign, he would ask the people, who 
was the most renowned Doctor in the Upper West Region as at that time and the response was 
Dr. Gyader. He would follow up to tell them that if they make a mistake and vote for Gyader, 
to go and sit in parliament, then, they would die anytime they fell sick and went to the 
hospital so instead, the electorate should vote for him, Anthony Bundong and allow Gyader to 
be at the hospital to save lives since, that is his God given talent. Though this was 
propaganda, in reality, it was true since as at that time you could barely count the number of 
qualified Doctors in Upper West. This was a real campaign since the message was aimed at 
convincing the electorates to vote him and not Dr. Gyader (Salmore & Salmore 1985, p.10). 
On the whole the opposition was so dwarfed by the huge NDC support base in the 
constituency. 
On 7th Dec. 1996, at 7 am, voting started and ended at 5 pm. Votes were counted at the 
various polling stations and the results were satisfied and sent to the constituency capital, 
Lawra. Here the returning officer in the person of Mr. T.T. Kennedy collated and compiled 
the results as follows.  
Party    Candidate   Total Votes    Percentage 
NPP   Naapie Gumil   2,192    6.6% 
NDC   Bundong Anthony K.  22,441    67.8% 
PNC   Gyader Edward N.  8486    25.6% 
NCP   Ishmael Pegkuu Karbo  0     0% 
(Source: Ephson 2003 P 141) 
 
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Based on the above results Mr. T.T. Kennedy declared Mr. Bundong Anthony, the 
parliamentary candidate of the NDC winner at about 10-11 in the night. All too soon the four 
year mandate of Bundong drew to a close and there was the need to get to the electorate to 
determine who represents them in parliament. As usual all political parties made the necessary 
preparation towards the December 7th election. This time all political parties fielded fresh and 
new candidates. The NDC went in for a renowned lawyer Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor, the NPP 
projected Mr. Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen, a young social scientist who had just come out of the 
university. Dr. Edward N. Gyader gave way to Mr. Tenku Charles, a professional teacher as 
the PNC parliamentary candidate. Also in the race for the first time was the National Reform 
Party (NRP) whose parliamentary candidate was David Nandoh, a thirty nine year old teacher 
by profession. The 2000 elections drew “a lot of enthusiasm among Ghanaian Voters” 
(Peprah 2007, p.4) taking into consideration the economic hardship that characterized the 
NDC administration (Debrah 2008/09, p.84). 
Indeed, before 2001 when the NPP assumed the reigns of governance, the opposition felt very 
intimidated in Lawra due to the heavy support base of the NDC, however, after 2001, the 
perception started, falling gradually. While it was difficult for the NDC party to win the 2000 
general elections nationwide, it was very easy for her (NDC) in Lawra. The opposition did all 
that they could to withstand the huge image of the NDC in the constituency but failed. At the 
end of voting at 5 pm on 7th Dec. 2000, the following were the results. 
 
 
 
 
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Party   Candidate   Votes   Percentage 
NDC   Benjamin Kumbuor  22,347   74.4% 
PNC   Tenku Charles   3,570   11.9% 
NPP   Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen 3,487   11.6% 
NRP   David Nandoh   641   2.1% 
(Source: Electoral Commission, 2012) 
 
From the results above, Mr. T.T. Kennedy the returning officer declared Dr. Benjamin 
Kumbuor, winner of the 2000 parliamentary elections in Lawra. The 7th December 2000 
parliamentary elections in Lawra were peaceful since there was no report of any major 
incident and this reinforced Ghana‟s passionate commitment to multi-party democracy which 
was freely chosen in 1992 (Ayensu & Darkwa 2006,p.100).  
 
When the tenure of office for the third parliament of the Fourth Republic was drawing to a 
close, it was necessary for parliament to seek the mandate of the electorate. The NDC which 
was in opposition as a government maintained the incumbent MP. Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor. 
The NPP went in for Lawyer Ambrose P. Dery, the then Deputy Attorney General and 
Minister of Justice, the PNC presented Mr. Bapullu Dennis Dery an educationist, while the 
Convention Peoples Party (CPP) made its maiden appearance in the constituency under 
Fourth Republican constitution by presenting Mr. Seidu Adams Billa, a teacher by training 
and a business man by profession and the then CPP youth organizer in the constituency. 
 
At this time, the other opposition parties to the NDC had some amount of briefing space 
especially the NPP since their party was in government and the main perception that the NPP 
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is a southern party seems to be dwindling slowly as the NPP improves on its previous 
performance at each election. What is even more striking was the fact that, when Ambrose 
Dery joined the parliamentary race, he was able to improve upon the performance of the NPP 
from 11.6% (3,487 votes) in 2000 to 31.7% (10,549 votes) in 2004 and finally won the seat in 
2008 with a 47%. (14,742 votes)  (Frederick Ebert Stiftung 2010, p115; Ephson 2008, p 20). 
Indeed the race was and has always been between the NDC and the NPP. Whilst Dr. 
Benjamin Kumbuor appealed to the electorates to renew his mandate so that he would 
continue to bring them more development projects, he however admitted that, he could not 
fulfill all his campaign promise because his government (NDC) was not in power and for that 
matter, the electorates should give him and the NDC the nod to occupy the seat of government 
so that they can benefit more. The NPP candidate, Ambrose Dery on other hand claimed that, 
since his party was in government, the electorates should vote for him to show them the 
difference between him and the incumbent MP, Benjamin Kunbuor.  
 
By and large the elections did take place on 7th December 2004 and at the end of voting and 
counting, all the polling station results were compiled and declared at the District Electoral 
Commission office as follows. 
Party   Candidate    Votes   Percentage 
PNC   Bapullu Dennis Dery  912   2.7% 
NPP   Dery Ambrose  10,549   31.7% 
NDC   Benjamin Kumbuor  19,306   58% 
CPP   Seidu Adams Billa  371   1.1% 
Source: (Electoral Commission, 2012). 
 
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From the above results, the Incumbent MP, Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor was declared winner of 
the 7th December 2004 parliamentary elections in Lawra by the returning officer, Mr. 
Stanislaus Baawone.  
 
When the lifespan of the fourth parliament of the Fourth Republic was coming to an end, 
election 2008 was scheduled for each constituency to decide who should represent them in the 
next parliament. In the Lawra constituency, the following parties and candidates took part in 
the 7th December 2008 parliamentary elections. For the NDC and NPP, they still maintained 
Dr. Kumbuor and Ambrose Dery respectively. The NPP maintained Ambrose because of the 
impressive performance he put up at the 2004 elections and therefore felt that he would even 
do better in the 2008 one since parties are rational and their rationality is on winning elections 
(Downs, 1957), then the NPP made a wise decision by maintaining Ambrose Dery. This 
election was crucial for one reason. Whilst it was the third term that, Dr. Kumbuor was 
seeking a re-election, it was the third term that the NPP as a government was seeking for the 
mandate of the electorate to retain them in power, but for Ambrose Dery it was his second 
attempt to seize the seat from Benjamin Kumbuor. The PNC fielded Mr. Henry Fatchu, the 
then Upper East Regional PNC secretary, who hails from Nandom. The CPP projected Dabuo 
Wilson. The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and the Democratic People‟s Party (DPP) who 
were new-comers in the game presented Bede Ziedeng and Ngmenkye C. Yelvelle 
respectively. Six (6) parliamentary candidates criss-crossed the length and breadth of the 
Lawra constituency, telling the electorates why they should vote for each of them instead of 
others. In fact the real battle was between the NPP and the NDC. Though the NDC had won 
the seat from 1992-2004, for the 2008 election, the NPP parliamentary candidate had one 
advantage to himself. He was Upper West Regional minister from 2005-2007, it afforded him 
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the opportunity to interact with the electorates of the constituency which helped him put 
things in order before the 2008 elections. He is reported to have always been at every function 
in the constituency and the few ones that he could not attend, his representatives were there 
with a donation. He also had the opportunity to attend to some of the personal needs and the 
constituency needs of the electorate and this endeared him to the people. 
 
It must be put on record, so far in the history of parliamentary elections in Lawra, that the 
2008 election was the most keenly contested one, indicating that multiparty-elections has 
become part of us and the quality of these elections keep on improving over the years thereby 
contributing to democratization in Africa ( Lindberg 2004, pp.75-86). 
Voting did take place on 7th December 2008 and after 5pm the various presiding officers 
counted and compiled all polling station results and brought them down to the District office 
of the EC. After compiling all the results into a constituency one, the following were the 
results declared by B.B. Suuriwe the returning officer. 
Party   Candidate   Votes   Percentage 
NPP   Ambrose P. Dery  14,742   47 
NDC   Benjamin Kumbuor  13,783   44 
DFP   Bede Ziedeng   1,428   4.6 
PNC   Fatchu Henry    566   1.8 
DPP   Nyamekye C. Yelvelle  507   1.6 
CPP   Dabuo Wilson   288   0.9 
Source: (Frederick Ebert Stiftung 2010)  
Based on the above declared results, Ambrose Dery of NPP won the election with 47% whilst 
his closest contendant Benjamin Kumbuor had 44% which indicates Kumbuor had lost the 
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seat. This sent the supporters of NPP jubilating since political parties and their supporters 
have one thing as a wish and that is to win elections (Allah-Mensah 1998, p269). Only 47% of 
voters chose Ambrose but the rest of the 53% of people who did not vote for him would have 
to be represented by Ambrose. It is on this basis that Tamakloe (2007) opined that democracy 
represent the interest of the few instead of the majority. In fact, history has been created in the 
constituency since this is the first time that a different party other than the NDC had won the 
seat. Just like first in the history of Turkey, when a far-right pro-Islamic party topped the 
parliamentary elections in 1995 (Akarea and Tansel, 2007), an opposition party‟s candidate 
other than the NDC‟s candidate had won the parliamentary election in Lawra under the Fourth 
Republic.  What is surprising is the fact that whilst the electorate voted massively for Prof. 
Atta-Mills to top in the constituency, they rather voted for Ambrose to top the parliamentary 
side. Again whilst the NDC won the elections nationwide, the party lost one of the stronghold 
parliamentary seat – Lawra.  
 
2.4 HOW THE ELECTORATES PERCEIVED THE VARIOUS POLITICAL 
PARTIES THAT CONTESTED ELECTIONS FROM 1992 – 2008 
2.4.1 Introduction 
Parties are very important link between the interest of the electorates and the activities of 
government and at the same time play an important role in democracy (Allah-Mensah 1998, 
p266). Perception, whether real or not, has a great impact on a lot of events and processes. 
How the electorates perceive or think of a political party will certainly influence the 
performance of that party in an election. In the United States, “some people think of the 
Democrats as a party of prosperity and the Republican Party as a party of depression. For 
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others, the Democrats are the party of war and the Republicans are the party of peace. These 
generalized images reflect historical events. The Great Depression commenced during the 
Republican administration while WWI and WWII and the Korean and Vietnam wars all broke 
out in the Democrats administration”. (Asher 1988, p41) This perception impacts on the 
electoral performance of these two parties. In the Lawra constituency, the electorates perceive 
the various political parties in different ways and these perceptions over the years have 
influenced the voting pattern. The following show how people think of all the parties that took 
part in elections within the area. 
 
2.4.2 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) 
On the average the perception of the electorates towards the NDC is very positive. The 
principle of social democracy of the NDC seems to go down well with the people. The NDC 
believes that the state or government must provide, especially, pro-poor services which will 
benefit the masses in line with a social democratic origin (Brobbey 2009, p.83) but sometimes 
it also claims some connection with the Nkrumahist tradition (Larvie & Badu 1996, p.44).  
Again this social democratic principles is in consonance with Rainborough‟s declaration that 
“the poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest” (Wright 1999, p.81). An 
area that is poverty-stricken would certainly go with a party that is ready to provide services 
that would benefit the poor, since they (constituents) cannot provide those services on their 
own. However, Brobbey (2009.p.83) disagreed with the issue of ideology since many 
Ghanaians cannot give ideological reasons for identifying with a political party.  It is also 
believed, especially, among the educated ones that irrespective of your qualification, one can 
easily rise in the NDC in so far as you are a committed member. With all these thoughts, the 
people of the area believe that the NDC party was for the ordinary Ghanaian. A lot of voters 
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within the constituency see the NDC as a home (Northern) party. This is because of a number 
of reasons. First, anytime NDC is in power, they appoint many Northerners as ministers as 
compared to the NPP. Secondly, it was Rawlings under the PNDC government who created 
the Upper West Region and for that matter many of the people of Lawra constituency and the 
region as a whole see Rawlings as the father of the Upper West Region. To many of the 
electorate, “J. J.” as they refer to Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings for short is synonymous with 
the NDC party, in other words Rawlings is seen as an embodiment of the rank and file of the 
party and he is the most popular political figure as attested to by Bluwey (1998, p348) that it 
will be difficult for even the most loyal opposition member to dispute that Rawlings is the 
popular political figure in the country Ghana.. They see “J. J.” as an action man who is 
capable of delivering services without fail. While others see him as a savior, because he 
staged two coups to save Ghana from the hands of corrupt officials and also has managed to 
transform the national economy and reform the Ghanaian society, others like him because of 
his personal attributes. In totality majority of the electorates have positive perception towards 
Rawlings and since majority of them cannot separate the personality of Rawlings from the 
NDC party of which he is the founder, then they also view the NDC as a very good party. For 
the fact that Rawlings is the founder of the NDC and since majority of them like Rawlings 
and his NDC party and even for the fact that Rawlings is the founder of the Upper West 
Region, then majority of the people view the NDC as a father. In these circumstances, it is 
absurd for anybody to point his left hand at his father‟s house and for such people, whether 
rain or shine they must always vote for the NDC but this believe is strongly opposed by 
Nugent (2007,p.27) that since 2000, things have moved from bad to worse for the NDC party. 
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However, it is important to stress that the above perception is not uniform throughout the 
constituency. For example in Lawra town, the natives see NDC as a Zongo party and in 
reality overwhelming majority of NDC members or supporters in Lawra town are strangers. 
Two reasons account for this. First, the late chief, Abaifa Karbo was a leading member of the 
Danquah-Busia – Dombo tradition. In fact he became the first MP of the area on the United 
Party and the current chief Puowelle Karbo is an ardent supporter of the NPP and for this 
reason the natives prefer to go by the preferences of their chiefs. Secondly, majority of the 
business men and public officials who suffered the excesses of the Rawlings revolution were 
from Lawra town in the same manner as in the US where the Democrats are associated with 
war, the NDC is also associated with violence in Lawra town (Asher 1988, p.41). However, 
outside Lawra town, the image of NDC is positive. 
 
The story of the Nandom traditional area is different from Lawra town. The whole of 
Nandom, whether town or village, look at the NDC in a positive light. Two reasons also 
account for this. First, the late Nandom Naa, Paul Polkuu Konkuu Chiir VI was a personal 
friend of Rawlings. He was a Minister for Defence under the PNDC government for a short 
term and when Polkuu Konkuu Chiir passed away in Accra, Rawlings sent the body to 
Nandom in a plane and organized a state funeral for him. Rawlings personally went for the 
funeral in an air-force helicopter to Nandom. This in fact has made an indelible impression on 
the minds of the people of the Nandom traditional area. Secondly it is also believed by many 
people from Nandom that, it was Rawlings who assisted the current chief, Naa Dr. Puo-ure 
Puobi Imoro Chiir VII to ascend to the throne. Again Dr. Charles Imoro Puo-ure Puobi Chiir 
VII was one time acting president of the National House of Chiefs and a Board Chairman of 
the Forestry Commission under the NDC I regime. All these are seen as assistance offered by 
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Rawlings to their overlord.  As compared to other parties, the NDC has more positive image 
in the constituency and majority of the people just have the joy to have the NDC to always be 
in power.  
Indeed, it may not be necessarily the case that the NDC is developing the constituency so 
well. The PNDC and the early part of the first term of Rawlings under NDC, structures were 
put in place by the NDC party which were later used and indeed aided the party in its electoral 
fortunes. The PNDC/NDC earlier put in place certain things which put them ahead of other 
parties when it comes to electoral competition. First of all, under the PNDC era the National 
Mobilization Programme had officials who were core NDC members. This organization was 
responsible for educating the rural-folks how to initiate self-help projects that would led to the 
development of their communities. Later under the first term of the NDC, National Disaster 
Management Organization (NADMO) was created and was responsible for distributing relief 
items to affected people and again, the officers who manned NADMO were also NDC party 
members. The very people who manned these two organizations are the very people who led 
the campaign trail of the NDC. Majority especially those in the rural areas see these people as 
„savers‟ since some time ago, they brought them relief items such as rice, mattresses, roofing 
sheets among many others. In view of these supports their allegiance are closely connected to 
the NDC. This is perfectly in line the claim made by V.O. Key Jr that voters are rational and 
therefore evaluate what has happened in the past before voting (Maisel 1987, p68). Some 
electorates out of ignorance do not see the existence of other political parties other than the 
NDC (Ahiawordor 2001, p291). Such people are so used and glued to the name NDC and the 
umbrella symbol such that no amount of persuasion can change their mind. 
 
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2.4.3 The New Patriotic Party (NPP)  
The philosophical belief of the NPP is that of the property-owning democracy, otherwise 
known as capitalist-democrats (Brobbey 2009, p.79) a political ideology that propelled world 
renowned leaders like Thatcher and Reagan into power (Hoover & Plant, 1988). It is the 
belief that, government should create the enabling environment for every individual to acquire 
his or her own wealth. In the light of this, some electorates think that, looking at the poor 
nature of the area, especially the poor natural endowment environment, there is no way they 
can make it even if government should create the enabling environment. For this reason, such 
people see the NPP as a party which did not have the poor at heart simply because it is belief 
that majority of the big wigs are “with a foot in business” (Nugent 2007, p.260). The 
electorates perceive politics or political parties as a mixture of what they choose to know and 
how they feel and think about such parties or political situations (Maisel 1987, p68). The 
perception that the electorates have towards the NPP is a mixed one. To the natives of Lawra 
town, this is a party they hold in high esteem and would always wish that, the NPP should be 
in power perpetually. In fact, this is their democratic right and no one can begrudge them. 
Two reasons backed their perception. First Chief Dombo who comes from Jirapa-Duor which 
shares borders with Lawra was a founding father of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition out 
of which emerged the NPP. In addition the late Chief Abeifa Karbo was also a leading 
member of the NPP and currently the National Youth Organizer of the NPP Mr. Anthony 
Karbo is from the Lawra Chief Palace. Also the current chief Puowelle Karbo is also an 
ardent supporter of the NPP, though he does not show it in the open, because of the 
constitutional provision which bars chiefs from active partisan politics. However these 
constitutional provision has been flouted by some chiefs in the Ho central constituency by 
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openly declaring their support for President Attah-Mills  and Benjamin Kpodoh in the 2012 
elections ( Ghanaian times 2012, p.11). The Lawra Royal House has some links with the NPP, 
then majority of the natives prefer to go with the royal house. The people of Babile, which is 
about 14km south of Lawra, also go with the natives of Lawra. The simple reason is that, the 
mother of late Naa Abeifa Karbo comes from Babile and when Abeifa was on the throne, his 
native people always supported him in politics and even after his death, the tradition still 
remains. 
 
The second reason why majority of the natives in Lawra perceive the NPP in positive light is 
the fact that, majority of those who suffered excesses of the Rawlings revolution within the 
constituency were natives of Lawra town. During the revolutionary period all the hardworking 
people were arrested, beaten and asked to explain how they acquired their resources. The 
belief was that those well to do people had acquired fraudulent wealth and were enjoying at 
the expense of majority suffering masses. Successful business men equally suffered the same 
fate. All these have left a scar on the minds of the natives of Lawra and for this reason, they 
would never support Rawlings and, the NDC party of which he is the founder. The only 
alternative vibrant party to the NDC therefore is the NPP. On this note whether the NPP is 
doing well or not, the natives of Lawra would always want the NPP to be in power. However, 
majority of the strangers in Lawra would prefer the NDC but they are always in the minority. 
Outside Lawra the NPP is perceived as a southern (Akan) party, simply because, the 
Danquah-Busia tradition has been dominated by political families and dynasties from Ashanti 
and Eastern regions (Nugent 2007, p.260) reported that the NPP won the 2000 elections 
because it targeted its strongholds in Ashanti, Eastern and Brong-Ahafo. What heighten this 
perception was when NPP came into power under Kufuor in 2001, out of the numerous 
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ministers and deputy ministers, it was only Lawyer Eledi Clement alone from Upper West 
who was appointed deputy minister for Agriculture. In addition it took president Kufuor a 
longer time as compared to Rawlings to visit Upper West after he was sworn in as president 
of the Republic of Ghana. In totality the number of party bigwigs in the NPP who are from 
either the region or constituency is very negligible. This compelled people within the 
constituency to feel that the party does not belong to them but instead to southerners. It would 
however, be fair to say that, this is not the view of every person within the constituency but 
that is the widely believed view. 
However, it must added that the perception of the NPP as a southern party made up 
predominantly of Akans seems to be waning except that the pace is slow. This is evidence in 
the improved performance of party from elections to elections within the constituency.  
Analysis of the constituency and the reality of the case is that the first elections conducted on 
party lines within the constituency was won by the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition in 1954. 
Abeifaa Karbo of the UP won the elections and remained in power until 1965 when Ghana 
became a one party state. After the post CPP era when Ghana returned to democracy in 1969, 
it was Sylvester Sanziri who won the elections on the PP ticket. In addition Mr. Hafiz Bin 
Salih, the NPP regional secretary, asserted that the Danquah-Busia tradition could also be 
traced to the Upper West region. He mentioned the late Abaifa Karbo, Gyato Kaleo and S.D. 
Dombo as some of the founding fathers from the region (Interview with Bin-Salih, 2011). 
With this it is fair to argue that the NPP which came out of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo 
tradition is not alien to the constituency.  
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2.4.4 The Convention People’s Party (CPP) 
Majority of people in Lawra still remember vividly, how the CPP struggled to win 
independence for Ghana. They also remember some of the good projects that Nkrumah did for 
Ghana when he was a president on the ticket of the CPP. The youth who do not know 
Nkrumah have read and wished the Nkrumah days could be rolled back. They see the CPP as 
a good party that would attend to the needs of everybody but unfortunately the CPP as they 
know as at 1992 to date is not capable financially and resources wise to win elections to 
govern. For this reason, except for ardent supporters or members of the CPP majority of the 
electorates would prefer to vote for either the NDC or NPP. Due to this weak financial and 
resource base, the CPP never put up any parliamentary candidate since 1992 until 2004 
elections. From 1992 to 2000, the CPP supported the PNC parliamentary candidates. It is on 
the basis of this that this study agrees with Boafo-Arthur (1998) that there is a relationship 
between funds and effective party organizations and democratic process. With this 
background, the electorates feel that, the CPP was not ready to govern the country so a vote 
for CPP is a wasted effort and opportunity, but the constituency chairman thinks that, though 
the CPP cannot win the 2012 election, they would improve on their performance with the 
assumption of Samia Nkrumah on the chairperson‟s seat. According to Ayee (2004, p6) the 
poor performance of the CPP and the other Nkrumahist parties is due to their continues 
marginalization and disunity. The Nkrumahist must therefore unite because it they still remain 
fragmented, then they should forget of winning power in the foreseeable future.  
2.4.5 The People’s National Convention (PNC) 
The people‟s National Convention is one of the parties viewed by many as one of the weak 
parties incapable of coming into power now. Just like the CPP, the PNC has a weak financial 
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and resource base. This confirms the assertion by Kumado that the resource a party spends 
towards participating in elections affects its chances and outcome of the election (Kumado, 
1996). Many of the constituents however still appreciate and remember the fact that it was the 
PNC party that produced the first Northern president in the person of Hilla Limann who 
happens to be the son of Upper West Region and therefore the PNC is perceived as a pure 
Northern party but rather weak to win elections. They also remember Sylvester Sanziri as a 
former MP. Some electorates have argued that, it would have been better for the PNC to join 
hands with the CPP to form a stronger Nkrumaist family capable of wrestling power from the 
NDC and the NPP. Finally the PNC is seen as a quiet party. 
 
2.4.6 Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) 
The citizens of the constituency have since 1992 have seen Bede Ziedeng follow the NDC 
campaign team to criss-cross the length and breadth of the constituency. Most of the illiterates 
rather associate the party with the parliamentary candidate Mr. Bede Ziedeng, who is a son of 
the area. Being a breakaway party from the NDC, many people were careful and suspicious of 
the activities of the DFP. This is because, Lawra is a stronghold of NDC and therefore, most 
NDC supporters see the DFP as a party that is ready to bring down the NDC party. Such 
voters will certainly not go the polls with open minds but pre-existing believes (Brobbey, 
2009). Many of such people made up their minds not to vote for the party but there were some 
few other electorates who felt that, as a son of the land, they cannot allow Bede Ziedeng to go 
empty handed and therefore should be given some votes, which shows that in Africa votes are 
mobilized on tribal lines but not on issues (Gyimah-Boadi 2007, p.27). For this reason Bede 
Ziedeng got 1,428 (4.56%) votes which are far more than 681 (2%) votes scored by the 
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presidential candidate of the DFP (EC, 2012). Some also viewed the DFP as a new weak party 
that cannot do much to change their lives. 
 
2.4.7 The Democratic People’s Party (DPP) 
The DPP made its first entrance into parliamentary elections in the constituency in 2008. Not 
much is known about the party and has little or no support base. A lot of people, especially 
the illiterate could not tell who the founder was and its parliamentary candidate was a young 
man of 25 years, a product of SHS. The constituents assume that the party has just added to 
the number of parties and the parliamentary candidate did not do any serious campaign and it 
is an indication that not all political parties have support outside the major cities (Diamond 
1997, p.335). 
 
2.4.8 The National Convention Party (NCP) 
The first time the NCP contested parliamentary election was in 1996. After this the party 
never contested any parliamentary elections. The party was not known in the constituency and 
the parliamentary candidate who stood also failed to market the party. This is because of 
pressure from the Kinsmen of the contestant, Mr. Ishmael Pegkuu Karbo, which clearly shows 
that in Ghana the interest for one to join or be in politics mostly comes from friends and 
families (Brobby, 2009). He was seen as somebody rebelling against the popular wish of the 
Lawra royal house, which has always thrown its weight behind the NPP. Due to this, as soon 
as he filed his nomination, pressure was mounted on him and he never campaigned and rather 
withdrew. However when the ballot papers were brought, his name and picture were on it but 
he scored zero at the end of the elections.  As it is stated earlier on, not much is known about 
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the party as of now and as of then and for that reason most electorates do not see how such a 
party can change their lives since politics is about activities aimed at improving the status of 
people (Das 1996, p.1). 
 
2.5 BRIEF POLITICAL PROFILE OF ALL THE PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES 
FROM 1992 – 2008 
2.5.1 Introduction 
Election choices become meaningful and effective when political parties put forward serious 
candidates (Allah-Mensah 1998, p268). The political pedigree of a candidate some times (but 
not always) influence his performance in an election and it is against this background that, 
there is the need to provide the political substance that the various candidates who contested 
parliamentary elections in Lawra are made of. Whilst admitting that, there are other equally 
important factors that influence the performance of candidates in elections, our attention now 
is on their political career. 
 
2.5.2 The NDC Candidates 
From 1992 – 2008, the NDC present a total of three candidates who won all the parliamentary 
elections except the 2008 one. The following were the NDC parliamentary candidates. 
 
2.5.2.1 Ken Kunfaa 
Ken is a native of Nandom Gengenkpe. He was a staff of SSNIT at the Wa Regional Office. 
Ken was noted for his revolutionary ideas and activities especially during Rawlings 
revolutionary period. As an active revolutionalist, he was the first person to be made regional 
secretary of NDC as soon as the party was formed and later on he was handpicked by the 
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party to contest the December 28th, 1992 parliamentary elections of which he won. In fact he 
came onto the election scene with a lot of knowledge, experience and past contacts with 
society (Salmore & Salmore 1985). 
 
 
2.5.2.2  Anthony Bundong Koyiri 
Anthony was a native of Lawra-Tempie. He started as a pupil teacher, but later abandoned the 
classroom and became the Regional Director for Centre for National Culture (CNC), Wa, 
when the NDC came to power in 1993. His political membership started with the UP 
tradition, later on he became a member of the CPP and finally landed himself in the camp of 
the NDC as a registered member. As a regional Director for CNC he was popular and the 
party felt that he is a winnable candidate so in 1996, he was projected as the party‟s 
parliamentary candidate for Lawra.  
 
2.5.2.3 Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor 
Hails from Nandom Baseble and a renowed lawyer. He was a member of the Citizens Vetting 
Committee (CVC) which was later on changed to Revenue Commissions. He was an active 
supporter of the PNDC regime and was personally close to Tsikata. He stood for 
parliamentary elections in 2000 on the ticket of the NDC and won. In 2004 he stood again and 
won and was made ranking member for Defense and Interior and later on to Finance. 
However in 2008 he stood and lost honourably to the NPP parliamentary candidates. He is 
perceived to belong to the Rawlings camp.  
 
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2.5.3 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) 
The NPP fielded four candidates for the parliamentary elections which span from 1992-2008, 
in the Lawra constituency. Each candidate was fielded based on the exigencies of the time. 
Who then were there candidates in political terms. 
 
2.5.3.1 Retired Colonel Robert Kuunta Azumah  
Col. Azumah was a retired soldier man from Gbengbee, Lawra traditional area. He was one 
time regional commissioner of Northern Region under the Acheampong era, he was a wanted 
man by Rawlings and that led to his (Azumah) exit from Ghana until in 1992, when the 
country was making efforts to return to constitutional rule, that col. Azumah returned and 
decided to stand as parliamentary candidate for the NPP in the 1992 parliamentary elections 
in Lawra which the opposition later on boycotted. 
 
2.5.3.2 Retired Brigadier General Naapie Gumil 
Like his predecessor, Naapie Gumil was a retired army personnel from Lawra-Yatuur. Whilst 
in active service, he was closer to Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings as a friend but along the line, 
the relationship broke down. Indeed he and his predecessor stood not only to win the seat for 
the NPP but also prevent Rawlings party from thriving. In 1996 he stood on the NPP ticket 
when Col. Azumah did not show any interest. 
 
2.5.3.3 Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen 
A native of Amburi within the Lawra catchment area. He was a young social scientist from 
U.S.T., who had just completed school and since Brigadier Gumil declared that he was not 
going to stand for parliamentary elections again, then Mr. Stephen Y. Engmen volunteered to 
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stand for the party. He was a registered member of the party and stood for the party‟s 
parliamentary elections in 2000. 
 
2.5.3.4 Lawyer Ambrose Patrick Dery 
Ambrose is a legal practitioner of high stature who had handled many high profile cases but 
the one that made him so popular was Mallam Issah, the former sports minister under 
president Kufuor. Indeed Ambrose is said to be a strong member of the PNC, an issue he 
denied during his vetting but rather said that, he was only a sympathizer of the PNC since he 
bears no party card. Ambrose was also made a board chairman for STC by the NDC 
government in 1993. The first time many heard of Ambrose in NPP circle was when he was 
appointed Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice in 2001 by former president 
Kufuor. In 2004 he stood on the ticket of the NPP as a parliamentary candidate for the Lawra 
constituency but lost to Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor. In 2005, Ambrose Dery was made Upper 
West Regional Minister after Sagnuu Mogtaar was removed. In 2007 Ambrose was also 
removed as Upper West Regional Minister and made Minister of State in the office of the 
president. From here Ambrose stood for the NPP in 2008 parliamentary elections in Lawra 
and won. He is perceived to belong to Nana Akuffo-Addo‟s camp. Though Ambrose Dery 
was not a veteran politician as at the time he was entering politics, his long term interaction 
with the public as practicing lawyer enabled him to bring on board experience and knowledge 
(Salmore & Salmore, 1985). 
 
2.5.4 The People’s National Convention (PNC) 
Just like the NPP, the PNC also present four candidates for the 1992-2008 parliamentary 
elections in the constituency. These candidates were. 
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2.5.4.1 Dr. Edward N. Gyader 
Gyader was a renowned medical Doctor at the Wa regional hospital. He is a native of 
Nandom. He was a founding member of the PNC at both the constituency and regional levels. 
In 1988, when the District Assembly concept started, he was a government appointee and the 
first presiding member of the Lawra District Assembly. He was also a member of the 259 
Consultative Assembly (Ayensu & Darkwah, 2006) that was appointed in 1991 to draft the 
1992 Fourth Republican Constitution. As an Nkrumaist, he was loyal to former president 
Hilla Limann and at the same time close to Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings since their parties share 
the same ideology. (Brobbey 2009, p.79). Dr. Gyader stood for the PNC in the 1992 and 1996 
parliamentary elections, which he boycotted and lost respectively. 
 
2.5.4.2 Tenku Charles 
Charles was the parliamentary candidate for PNC in the 2000 parliamentary election in 
Lawra. Before this, he was an Assistant headmaster of Ko Secondary School in Nandom and a 
very strong member of the PNC. He was part of the campaign team for Dr. Edward Gyader in 
1996 parliamentary elections in the constituency. In 2000 when Dr. Gyader did not show any 
interest, Mr. Tenku was asked to step in. He did contest but lost. 
 
2.5.4.3 Bapuulu Dennis Dery 
Mr. Dery was a registered member of the PNC. He comes from Tampie, in Lawra. He was the 
Desk officer for the disabled at the Lawra District GES office. He was the parliamentary 
candidate for the PNC in the 2004 parliamentary elections in Lawra.  
 
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2.5.4.4 Mr. Henry Fatchu 
Mr. Fatchu is a strong member of the PNC. In 1992 he was an agent for the party in the 
constituency. In 1996, he was made zonal secretary of the PNC and the following year that is 
1997 he was unit committee member of the Lawra District Assembly. In the 2000 
parliamentary elections Mr. Fatchu was the campaign manager for the then PNC candidate, 
Mr. Tenku Charles. In 2006 Mr. Fatchu Henry stood and contested for the Assembly 
membership for Nandom East but lost. In the year 2007, Mr. Fatchu became the regional 
secretary for the PNC in Upper East Region, Bolga. After having climbed through the ladder, 
Fatchu felt he was matured enough to serve his party at the constituency level as a 
parliamentary candidate, hence he stood in the 2008 parliamentary elections but lost to 
Ambrose Dery. 
2.5.5 The Convention People’s Party (CPP) 
The convention people‟s party started contesting parliamentary elections in Lawra in 2004. 
For that matter, they had fielded only two candidates for the period under study. These two 
candidates were. 
 
2.5.5. 1 Seidu Adams Bila 
Mr. Bila is a native of Lawra town. He is a teacher by training but decided to go into business 
as his preferred profession. He was a staunch member of the CPP and from 2003-2004 he was 
the constituency youth organizer of the CPP and as a business man he was believed to have 
money and for that matter the party chose him to stand for the elections and this demonstrates 
clearly how wealth and for that matter money play an important role in elections (Ninson 
2006, p.199). He stood for the 2004 parliamentary elections in the constituency on the CPP 
ticket but lost the elections. 
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2.5.5.2 Wilson Dabuo 
A native of Nandom and a professional teacher. He is a member of the CPP in the 
constituency who stood for the parliamentary contest in the 2008 on his party ticket but could 
not win. 
2.5.6 The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) 
The DFP is considered as splinter group of the NDC since its leading and founding members 
formerly belonged to the NDC. Being a newly formed party, they only had the opportunity to 
contest the 2008 parliamentary elections in the constituency and its parliamentary candidate 
was Bede Ziedeng. Bede is a native of Lawra-Eremon and a strong NDC member. He has 
been a deputy Upper West Regional Minister for two consecutive times and that was from 
1993 – 1996 and from 1997 – 2000. Indeed, in 2000 Bede attempted the NDC primaries at the 
Lawra constituency but lost to Dr. Kunbuor Benjamin. Bede became deputy General 
Secretary and later became Acting General Secretary of the NDC. Between 2001 and 2002 he 
worked very closely with Dr. Obed Asamoah to revive the NDC party. In 2006 Bede lost the 
context to become the substantive General secretary of the NDC at the Koforiduah delegates 
conference. Not satisfied with the general conduct of the 2006 Koforidua elections, Bede and 
some other members of the NDC broke away to form the DFP. Bede later became the General 
Secretary of the DFP and stood as its parliamentary candidate in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections in Lawra. 
 
2.5.7 The Democratic People’s Party (DPP) 
The DPP attempted the parliamentary elections in the constituency, in the 2008 elections. Its 
parliamentary candidate was Ngmenkye Yelvelle from Lawra town itself. He volunteered to 
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contest on behalf of the party without participating in primaries. How did it all start? The 
beginning was a DPP van passing to Nandom that stoped over at Lawra. A group of young 
men got attracted and out of curiosity gathered around the van and their party officials got 
down to address them. After the address a number of young men volunteered to be members 
of the party and out of this the executives were chosen there and then through elections. 
However when it came to the parliamentary candidate, Ngmenkye C. Yelvelle was acclaimed 
by the crowd that had gathered and Gmenkye obliged. With this one can say that “the 
Ghanaian interest in politics is inspired by friends, family members and life experiences 
(Brobbey 2009, p.81). Two weeks later they invited people and the party was duly launched 
in 2008 at his grandfather‟s house. In earnest, Ngmenkye has never been a politician. Indeed 
according to him it was the party that pushed him into it. For this reason after the election 
Ngmenkye has resigned into private life.  
 
2.5.8 The National Reform Party (NRP) 
Just like the DPP, the NRP also contested the Lawra seat only once and that was in the 2000 
parliamentary elections. Its parliamentary candidate was Mr. David Nandoh, from Lawra-
Yagtuuri. Nandoh is a teacher by profession. He started his political career as a known strong 
supporter and member of the NPP in the constituency and when the NRP was formed he 
defected to join it with the view of making some financial gains. After the elections, which he 
did not win, he quickly came back to join the NPP and even later became the constituency 
secretary. 
 
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2.5.9 The National Convention Party (NCP) 
The NCP fielded a candidate in the 1996 parliamentary elections but never took part in the 
competition. As soon as Mr. Ishmael Pegkuu Karbo filed his nomination with the EC, family 
members appealed to him to step down since he (Pegkuu) was a supporter of the NPP. 
Contesting would mean dividing the votes of the NPP candidate. Pegkuu obliged to the appeal 
and therefore never campaign for votes and therefore, on the voting day, though his name was 
on the ballot paper, he scored zero. 
2.6. CAMPAIGN MESSAGES AND STRATEGIES OF THE 2008 PARLIAMENTARY 
ELECTIONS 
In any serious election the campaign messages and strategies are probably the most important 
aspect of the election, as its enables the candidate to introduce themselves to the electorates 
and solicit for their support and votes in order to win the election (Debrah, 2003). 
“Campaign strategies fall into three basic types, namely: party-centered strategy which relies 
on voter‟s partisan identification; issue-oriented strategy which draws support from groups 
that feel strongly about various policies; and finally, candidate-image strategy which deals 
with qualities such as integrity, experience, leadership ability, independence and 
trustworthiness” (Salmore and Salmore 1985, pp10-11). A total of six political parties took 
part in the 2008 parliamentary elections in the Lawra constituency. In terms of campaign 
messages, all the political parties gave similar messages but they however differed in 
strategies adopted to prosecute their campaign. Below is an analysis of campaign messages 
and strategies adopted by the competing parties. 
 
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2.6.1 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) 
The main theme of the NDC parliamentary candidate to the electorate was on development. 
Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor, the NDC parliamentary candidate contended that, he has used a good 
portion of his MP‟s share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to sponsor 
people into various secondary and tertiary institutions. In addition, he has been able to lobby 
for a midwifery school for Nandom and a Health Assistant Training School for Lawra. He 
however conceded that, he could have done better if his party (the NDC) was in power. This 
is because his tenure of office coincided with the NPP administration that is from 2001 – 
2008. This was an indirect admission of his failure as MP and the absence of the incumbency 
advantage enjoyed by the NDC in the 1996 and 2000 elections (Nugent, 2007) He was 
therefore appalling to the electorates to renew not only his mandate but they should also give 
the nod to Prof. Evans Atta-Mills. It is when the two of them are in power together that, he as 
an MP can lobby and bring more resources into the constituency. He backed his claim with 
the proverb that, it is when your mother is in the kitchen that you are sure of getting the 
hottest part of the pudding. He further argued that, since he could not satisfy most of the needs 
of the constituents, it is an indicative that, the NPP   government was not doing well and for 
that matter, they (NPP) should be voted out to allow the NDC to come to power to provide 
development projects under the Better Ghana Agenda. The incumbency advantage that the 
NDC enjoyed in the 1996 general elections in terms of resources and access (Alla-Mensah 
1998, p.269) and the 2000 elections were totally absent. 
 
In terms of strategies, since the NDC is one of the better resourced parties within the 
constituency, they made use of foot soldiers who moved from place to place and from house 
to house to propagate the Better Ghana Agenda. In addition, a number of rallies were 
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organized where various speakers took turn to address party faithful. The placement of Prof. 
John Evans Atta-Mills third on the presidential ballot paper and Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor also 
third on the parliamentary ballot-paper was symbolic and strategic to the NDC party. The 
number three (3) to Prof. Evans Mills, was his third term of attempting the presidency but to 
Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor, it was his third term of asking the people to give him their mandate, 
since he contested the 2000, and 2004 parliamentary elections and won respectively, so 
therefore, the 2008 elections was something he must win since God has destined it to be so 
and that is why He (God) has placed him third on the ballot paper. The NDC further argued 
that the NPP was a wounded elephant that has destroyed the forest and other resources 
thereby exposing the constituents to a lot of economic hardships and for this reason the NDC 
was inviting all the electorates in Lawra to run under the Umbrella for shade and protection. 
The umbrella was therefore propagated as a symbol of savior. 
 
In addition to this, the NDC also attacked the DFP in their strategies. The DFP used stars as 
their symbol and argued that, as stars in the sky, they will shine on everybody and that the star 
will shine straight into the castle, the NDC perfectly agreed with the DFP but added that the 
star instead of shining straight into the castle rather went over the castle and fell inside the 
sea. No star therefore can shine when it is in the sea. The NDC did all these to stop people 
from voting for the DFP candidate, probably due to fear of sharing the NDC devotees since 
the leading members of the DFP were initially part of NDC. The slogan adopted by the party 
has been; “NDC! ti nyog yen, NDC! ti nyog yen, NDC! ti nyog yen gbingbingbin”  translated 
to mean, NDC! we are holding on to it, NDC! we are holding on to it, NDC! we are holding 
on to it strongly. 
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In fact, the NDC parliamentary candidate made use of his hometown as campaign issue. 
Indeed, though Kumbuor hails from Nandom Baseble, his father comes from Tuma, a village 
four miles to the south of Lawra where he migrated to Baseble in Nandom and settled 
permanently. His reason for tracing his root back to Lawra is simple. Lawra is the strong hold 
of the opposition NPP and so tracing his root to Lawra is to tell the electorates there that he is 
the son of the land and for that matter they should vote for him instead of the NPP 
parliamentary candidate. This is an indication that Benjamin did not have much electoral 
issues to share but he resorted to trivialities such as place of origin thereby confirming what 
Gyimah-Boadi (2007, p.27) noted that African elections are characterized by direct 
mobilization of ethnic votes showing that the parties have no issues or better policies to 
articulate.  
 
2.6.2 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) 
Just like the NDC, the NPP equally hammered on development as the theme of their 
campaign message. Lawyer Ambrose P. Dery, the NPP parliamentary candidate argued that if 
he is given the nod, he would bring development to the place. He argued strongly that, 
Benjamin Kumbuor, the then incumbent MP had not done much to develop the place and that 
he (Ambrose) should be given the nod to show the difference Ambrose further contended that, 
when he was a Deputy Attorney General, he was able to lobby and arranged for rural 
electrification projects for some communities such as Babile, Kokoligu, Puffien and many 
others. In addition, when he was the Upper West Regional Minister in 2005 he ensured that, 
the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) was first piloted in the Lawra District. 
With further few examples Ambrose called on the constituents to give him the nod so that he 
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can do more for them. Basically Ambrose campaign was issue base (Busteed, 1975) as oppose 
to the view expressed by Gyimah-Boadi (2007, p.27). 
 
In addition to the above Ambrose specifically promised the following. 
(1) He would empower women when he gets the nod by giving them, a portion of his 
MP‟s Common Fund as a loan to women‟s organizations and serious individual 
women who are into business as a loan to run their businesses. His point is that, taking 
care of children especially feeding them is mostly done by women and therefore if he 
empowers them, then, it would go a long way to eradicate poverty  
(2) Since the Lawra District is one of the poorest districts in the country, the only thing 
that can be done to free the constituents from the shackles of poverty is to give them 
education. He therefore pledged to support the youth in their education with a portion 
of his District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). He further stated that he would 
sponsor inter JHS Quiz as a way of motivating JHS students to learn hard in order to 
get admission into the SHS. It is the hope of the electorate that the desire for re-
election will provide incentive for Ambrose Dery to redeem his campaign promises 
and remain responsible to them ( Brobbey 2009, p.76).  
 
In terms of strategies, the NPP also used foot soldiers to propagate their message to electorate. 
In addition, they organized rallies at vantage places where Ambrose and other speakers 
addressed the people in turns. What was unique to Ambrose campaign strategy was his ability 
to mingle with ordinary people in his constituency. He would intentionally join a group of 
people in a „pito‟ bar or joined a group of people playing a game or further still joined a group 
of mourners at a funeral and at these occasions, any time a special arrangement was made for 
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him, Ambrose would refuse and go by the ordinary way. This endeared him to a lot of people 
in the constituency, who think that, how can a former Deputy Attorney General and a former 
Upper West Regional Minister be so simple that, he can bring himself to the level of the 
ordinary man at the village.  This behavior of Ambrose whether natural or planned, can be 
likened to the efforts made by Margaret Thatcher to oust James Calaghan as prime minister of 
Britain where she was seen a workers‟ white uniform at a toffee factory (Oquaye 1998, p395). 
Also Ambrose frequented himself in the constituency in terms of visits. He ensured that he 
attended all funerals and other happy occasions. Those that he could not attend in person, his 
representatives were there with his donation. More strikingly, Ambrose identified 
marginalized or disgruntled NDC supporter or members and ensured that, the needs of such 
people are met and he would let them know that, as far as he is concerned, they are all one 
people in the constituency bonded by family ties and that he would not allow politics to 
destroy that long-term blood relations. These are subtle and underground strategies that 
Ambrose embarked upon to convince his constituents that;  
(1) He is as ordinary as any other person within the constituency 
(2) He would always be accessible to his electorate when made an MP 
(3) He would be very caring and would always attend to the needs of all and his care 
would transcend political boundaries. Lawyer Ambrose Dery appealed to his 
constituents that, since he is first on the parliamentary ballot paper, they should 
endorse him to be first in the election race. This is what Salmare and Salmore (1985, 
p.11) termed as candidate-centered or image campaign.  
Just like Kumbour, Ambrose Dery made use of his place of origin as a campaign issue but it 
was directly a reaction to what Kumbour has already said. In reality, Ambrose‟s father was an 
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agricultural officer who was posted to Lawra town as a government worker and gave birth to 
Ambrose. Ambrose was half way breed in Lawra before sent back to Nandom. In addition, 
Ambrose being a „Birfour‟ which is a dialect in Dagaare; traces his family relation to the 
people of Babil-Birfour under the Lawra traditional area. Again, Kunbour argues that he can 
trace or point to the walls of his father‟s house in Lawra but Ambrose cannot.  
 
2.6.3 The People’s National Convention (PNC) 
Mr. Henry Fatchu, the PNC parliamentary candidate claimed that, if given the nod, he would 
bring development to the area. He called on the electorate to reject the NDC and the NPP 
since according to his view have not brought much development to the area. The PNC would 
be a better alternative. What he promised the people was that if given the nod, he would 
develop a number of dams for irrigation purposes as a way of curbing the migration of the 
youth, during dry season to the southern part of the country in search of non-existing or 
menial jobs. 
 
Unlike the NDC and the NPP, the PNC did not have foot soldiers, because the party did not 
have the resources to support them to undertake vote canvassing. For this reason, Mr. Fatchu 
gathered supporters who were also members of the PNC to move around to talk to people 
mostly on one-on-one. The large rallies of the NDC and NPP were missing in the PNC. But 
the small executives manage to organize received low patronage. Due to lack of resources, 
only a few people could afford to move around to campaign for the PNC and for that they 
could not even cover the entire constituency before the election day. 
 
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2.6.4 The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) 
The DFP equally discussed development. But to Bede Ziedeng, according to him 
development is not about physical structures, it entails supporting people to realize their 
objectives in life within their environmental circumstances. Indeed he was talking of 
developing people to function well in whatever job they find themselves. He cited examples 
like he would, assist the Losaala people to push trucks if it is what they want and he would 
also assist the people of Eremon his hometown people to farm groundnuts if it is what they 
want. Truck pushing and groundnut farming were cited because these were peculiar to the 
Losaala and Eremon people respectively.  
However, the inhabitants of these areas did not take kindly to it since they felt that, any party 
that wants to better their lots should give them better jobs than what they were doing. What 
further aggravated the problem was the fact that, at rally grounds, he would make it clear that 
if anybody is following the party because of money, he/she has found himself or herself in the 
wrong place. The DFP is not a party that shares food ostensibly to show his lack of resources 
for his campaign (Ninson 2006, p.199) and things became difficult for Ziedeng since in 
Ghana campaigns take longer period as compared to Britain where campaign takes less than a 
month (O‟neil at al  2006, p.48). Bede is not a stranger in the constituency. He was always 
with Dr. Kumbuor and other NDC bigwigs within the constituency, who moved around to 
campaign for the NDC. His problem now was how to convince the electorate to vote for him 
instead of the NDC. He was able to capture some NDC members and other independent 
voters to follow him round for campaign. His slogan had been, DFP! “Ngmarbi tununu ti Kpe 
Kasil”, which means DFP, the star shines straight into the castle. But his opponent the NDC 
said the star went and missed the castle so it fell into the sea. Occasionally when he wants to 
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mention DFP! He would slip and mention NDC and there would be uproar of laughter from 
the people who had gathered to listen to him. 
 
2.6.5 The Democratic People’s Party (DPP) 
The DPP was represented by Ngmenkye C. Yelvelle as its parliamentary candidate. Indeed, 
Mr. Yelvelle‟s campaign message to the people was based on change.  Just like how the great 
alliance campaigned on “change and development” in 1996 in which fairness and justice will 
be restored (Ayee 1998, p38), Mr. Yelevelle also campaigned for change for the youngest. To 
him as the youngest of all the contestants, he was calling on the electorates to vote for him to 
take over from the old men. His campaign slogan was “the youngest MP” and the response 
was “surely to win” He argued that right from Ken Kuufaa to Benjamin Kunbuor, are all old 
people who did not do much for the constituency. He as a vibrant and young man would bring 
development to the area. He was more emphatic on education and made a specific promise to 
the electorates to sponsor students to the medical school since previous MPs have ignored that 
and to him this attitude has led to  the inadequate number of medical doctors in the district. He 
inform his constituents, that if voted into power, he would bring a lot of good things to the 
constituency since his name “Yelvelle” means good things. His party office was in his house. 
Mr. Yelvelle and his party (DPP) were disadvantaged in a number of ways. First the party has 
no support base in the constituency showing the fact that some political parties have no 
support base outside the major cities (Diamond, 1997). Secondly the party had limited 
resources and was therefore unattractive. The candidate himself was a Youth Employment 
beneficiary whose allowance was inadequate and irregular. The money sent to him from the 
party‟s head quarters was also not enough to carry out any meaningful campaign and knowing 
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very well that he would not win, Mr. Yelvelle economized his campaign. He did not organize 
any formal rally or rallies. 
 
2.6.6 The Convention People’s Party (CPP) 
The CPP is one of the oldest parties in the constituency but its support base keeps on 
dwindling. Since 1992, their first attempt at the parliamentary seat was in 2004. The 2008 was 
their second attempt and this was led by Dabuo Wilson a professional teacher. To him, if he 
and Papa Kwasi Nduom is given the nod, they would create more jobs for the youth as the 
CPP is noted for job creation under former president Nkrumah. He emphasized so much on 
Nkrumah‟s socialist ideology but there is evidence that “ideology is no guarantee of dynamic 
balance in the development process (Okita 1994, p.27). As a professional teacher, his priority 
would be on education when he comes into power. His slogan is tuuma daana which means 
CPP! Job creator. As a results of lack of funds Mr. Dabuo could not do much in terms of 
campaigns. In fact campaign has three resources which are money, organizations and 
candidates. The money will buy polls, organization will allow direct contact with the 
electorates and candidates will bring in experiences, knowledge and contact made in the past 
(Salmore and Salmore, 1985) all of which Mr. Dabuo Wilson was lacking. 
 
2.7. FUNDING OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS 
In a democracy, elections provide a mechanism for distilling the will of the people and 
thereby giving meaning to their sovereignty. Imbalance in the resources of political parties 
will surely affect the extent of which election results truly reflects the will of the people. No 
doubt, how much money a party is able to spend on its campaign in elections affects its 
chances and the outcome of the election. All the processes for getting the message to the 
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electorates cost money and without access to the message the electorates cannot make an 
informed choice (Kumado, 1996). This view of Kumado (1996) is further supported by 
Ninson (2006, p.199) who asserted that money and wealth played a decisive role in Ayawaso 
West Wuogon and Dome Kwabenya constituencies. According to him a candidate‟s campaign 
money could come either from own resources or his party or both and in any way the 
abundance of it boosted the image of the contesting candidates. The above views of these two 
scholars epitomize the vital role that money plays in political campaign as a lot of people 
believed in the adage that “money is politics and politics is money” (Ayee 2006, p.100). 
Funding of political campaigns however, is problematic for all political parties within the 
Lawra constituency. The reason is simple, when people join political parties, they are not in a 
position to contribute to the running of the party financially, and instead they look forward to 
seeing what the party can do for them in terms of financial or material gains. This is born out 
of the fact that, majority of the people within the constituency are very poor and therefore 
look up to political parties as source of making earns meet or making some material gains. 
With this at the back of their minds, majority of those who are party members or supporters 
do not even pay their dues let alone to contribute extra money to fund political campaigns 
despite “personal funding by party leadership and membership dues being” (Drah 2006, p152) 
prefer choices of funding for political parties . 
Generally therefore, the only available sources of funding for campaigns are two. The first 
one is money sent from the party‟s head quarters to the constituency level for campaign and 
the second one is the personal resources of the party‟s parliamentary candidate from the 
constituency. In the situation where the parliamentary candidate has limited resources, then 
the only sure source of funding campaign is the almighty seed money sent to the constituency 
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from party head quarters. In some few instances few individuals contributes substantially to 
funding political campaigns but such people always have an aim. In the event of their party 
winning, they should be giving good positions such as DCE or other higher appointments. 
 
This is the fate of almost all political parties except the NDC and the NPP. The two parties 
receive funding from contractors within the District. These monies are not given in the open, 
it is given secretly confirming Ayee (2006, p.100) that the sources of funding for political 
parties are guarded in secrecy despite a legal restriction put on them. It is believed that, one 
contractor can give money to NDC and NPP at the same time. The reason with the argument 
that these are the only two parties capable of coming into power and for that matter which of 
them who will win the election, then that contractor stands the chance of getting contract 
works. This may be true but very difficult to confirm from the political parties. This poor 
financial base of parties especially the other smaller parties other than the NPP and the NDC 
is having a telling effect on them as there is  a relationship between financial resources and 
effective party organization (Boafo-Arthur, 1998) and since these parties do not have enough 
resources it affect their campaigns and campaigns have the medicine to ensuring election 
victory and those who have money draw crowd to their campaign to clinch victory but those 
without enough money have a dull campaign and therefore court disaster at the polls (Debrah 
2006, p37). 
It is against the background of difficulty in raising money for party finances coupled with the 
abuse of incumbency by ruling parties that Boafo-Arthur (1998) and Kumado (1996) made 
various auguments for the state to fund political parties to some extent. 
 
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2.8. CONCLUSION 
The history of parliamentary elections in Lawra is an interesting one with the NDC 
dominating the scene for 16 years before an opposition could unseat the NDC. The reason for 
this is probably the positive light in which the NDC is perceived as compared to other 
opposition parties but some thing seems to have changed during the 2008 parliamentary 
elections and this change will be explain  further in chapter four of this study. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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37.  Electoral Commission of Ghana (2012): Presidential and Parliamentary results for 2008. 
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Hadenius, A (ed) Democracy‟s Victory and Crisis, Cambridge University 
Press. 
39. Das, P.G. (1996). Modern Political Theory. New Central book Agency Ltd, Kolkata.  
40. Ninson, A. K. (2006). Dome-Kwabenya and Ayawaso West Wuogon constituencies: A 
study in voter choice in the December 2004 Elections in Boafo-Arthur (ed) 
Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective Vol II 
freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
41. Debrah, E (2003) “Managing the electoral process at the grass root level: the case of the 
2002 district and unit committees elections” in Amponsah, N & Boafo-
Arthur, K  (eds) local government in Ghana, Uniflow publishers Ltd Accra. 
42. Busted, M.A. (1975) Geography and voting Behaviour, Oxford University Press, London. 
43. Oquaye. M, (1998) “Politics in Asanti Manpong - A study of the 1996 elections in Ayee, 
J.R.A. (ed) The 1996 general elections and the democratic consolidation in 
Ghana. Gold-Typed Ltd. Ghana. 
44. O‟neil, P.H., Fields, S.K. and Shane, D. (2006) (2nd edition). Comparative Politics, W.W. 
Nutron Co. New York. London. 
45. Ayee, J.R.A., (1998). The 1996 General Elections: An overview in Ayee, J.R.A. (ed) The 
1996 general elections and the democratic consolidation in Ghana. Gold-
Typed Ltd. Ghana 
46. Okita, S, (1994). Culture, Economic development, democracy: A tribute to the late 
Soedjatmoko in Somardjan, S & Thompson, K. W. (eds) Culture, 
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Devlopment and Democracy: The role of the Intellectual. United Nations 
Unity Press. Tokyo. 
47. Ayee, J.R.A. (2006). Political Participation, Democratic Consolidation and Electtions in 
Ghana. The case of Akan,Anlo and Keta constituencies in Volta region in 
Boafo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 elections in 
perspective, Vol II, Freedom Publications Ltd. 
48. Drah, F.K. (2006) “The 2004 elections: a study of Okai Koi south and Ayawasu central 
constituencies in Boafo-Arthur, K. Voting for Democracy, 2004 elections in 
perspective vol 2. Freedom publications Ltd, Accra. 
49. Debrah, E. (2006). Election 2004 and the politics of Upper West Akim and New Juabeng 
constituencies in Boafo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 
2004 Elections in Perspective Vol II freedom publications, Accra-Ghana. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER THREE 
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF THE CONSTITUENCY 
3.1 INTRODUCTION 
The Socio-economic activities and political structure of a particular place exert a great deal of 
influence on the behaviour of the people. It is against this backdrop that there is the need to 
understand the economic activities, the social behaviour which includes cultural, and the 
political and local administrative structure of the Lawra Constituency in order to understand 
the dynamics of the politics in the constituency, especially in the parliamentary elections. This 
is because the socio-economic activities and the various power structures impact and do have 
a monumenteous influence on the choices that the electorates make during elections. 
 
3.2 LOCATION AND SIZE OF THE CONSTITUENCY  
The Lawra constituency is one of the ten (10) constituencies that make up the Upper West 
Region. It is located at the North Western corner of the Upper West Region of Ghana between 
longitude 2o25 W and 2o45 W and latitude 10o20 and 1o00. It is bounded to the East by Sissala 
West District, to the South by Jirapa and to the North and West by the Republic of Burkina-
Faso and the Black Volta. The total land space of the constituency is estimated at 1051.2 
square km. This constitutes about 5.7% (Lawra district profile, 2011) of the region‟s total land 
area, which is put at 18,476 square km (Kunbour 2009). 
 
3.3 HOW THE CONSTITUENCY WAS CREATED 
The Lawra constituency as it is officially known is one of the oldest constituencies in Ghana. 
Before it was made a Constituency, Lawra had been one of the colonial administrative district 
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capital during the colonial rule headed by a District Commissioner. It was initially known as 
Lawra local council authority which later transformed into Lawra District Council by LI 942 
of 1974. Again in 1988, it became the Lawra District Assembly by LI 434. The Lawra District 
Assembly coincided with the Lawra Constituency (Interview with Lawra district planning 
officer, 2011). 
 
3.4 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS  
The 2000 National Population and Housing census results put the constituency‟s total 
population at 87,525. This is about 5.2% of the region‟s total population of 576,583. The 
constituency population comprises of 40,804 males and 46,721 females representing 47% and 
53% respectively and the sex ratio is 87.3 males to 100 females. There is intense pressure on 
natural resources particularly land for agricultural production as well as socio-economic 
facilities. The constituency population growth rate is at 1.7%, which is however below the 
national growth rate of 2.7%. 
The current estimated population of the constituency as at December 2009 stands at 101,162. 
This comprises 53,616 women and 47,546 men (DPCU, 2009). The distribution of the 
population into rural and urban is 86,999 (86) and 14,163 (14%) respectively. The 
constituency is made up of two hundred and twenty (220) settlements. Eight (8) location in 
the constituency have a population above one thousand (1000). Nandom is the largest locality 
with a population of 7,596 followed by Lawra the constituency capital with a population of 
6,707. However the  recent (May 31st 2012)  released 2010 population and housing census 
results shows that males are 48,641 and the females are 52,288 giving a population of 100,929 
for Lawra which is about 14.4% of the regional population of 702,110 (Ghana Statistical 
Service, 2012).  
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The settlements in the constituency are basically agrarian and rural and are nucleated in nature 
due to lack of proper physical planning and non-compliance with building regulations. With 
these rural settlements, the houses are scattered with compound farms around them. This 
poses problems of meeting the threshold population criterion for providing development 
projects. The agricultural sector employs about 70% of the employable population within the 
constituency. Migration (emigration) is seasonal and more pronounced in the dry season 
especially after the farming season (between October – May). This mostly involve the youth 
who migrate to the Southern parts of the country in search of greener pastures and return 
home in early June to start a new farming season. This is not peculiar to only Lawra but to all 
Dagaaba (Kunbour, 2009; Bodomo 1997, p.3). 
 
3.5 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
The constituency falls within the Guinea Savanah Zone (Kunbour 2009, p.9). The vegetation 
comprises of open Savanah grassland, a few woody plants and deciduous trees. Some of the 
common species of trees found in the constituency include the baobab, dawa-dawa, shea trees 
and acacia which are drought and fire resistant. 
The climate of the constituency is influenced by two air masses, the North-East Trade Winds 
and the South-Westlies. The North-East trade wind (harmattan air mass) is usually dry and 
dusty because it originates from the Sahara desert. The area experiences the harmattan air 
mass between November and April and during this period there is virtually no rainfall because 
of the prolonged dry season. The grasses become dry and the subsequent bush burning leaves 
the area patchy and mostly bare. Bush burning reduces the vegetative cover and transpiration 
and this affects average annual rainfall totals and the fertility if the land. 
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The climate of the constituency is tropical continental type with mean annual temperature 
ranging between 27oC to 36oC. The period between February and April is the hottest and 
sometimes can record a good number of cerebro spinal meningitis (CSM) cases. Between 
April and October, the tropical air mass (South-Westlies) blows over the area which gives the 
only raining season in the year. The torrential early rains cause soil erosion. This one-way 
rainfall pattern leads to the migration of the youth, a factor associated with the 
underdevelopment of the human resource base of the area. 
 
Generally, the vegetation is very congenial for livestock production, which contributes 
significantly to household incomes in the constituency, but it must however be added that 
wide spread bushfires, indiscriminate felling of trees for fuel wood (the major source of 
energy), inappropriate farming practices, soil erosion, over grazing of livestock, sand, gravel 
and stone winning and other acts of environmental degradation have reduced the quality and 
quantity of the vegetation. 
The constituency is gently rolling with a few hills ranging between 180 and 300 in above sea 
level. The highest among the hills is located at Ko in the Nandom traditional area and it is 
called the Yezu Tang, which literally means the hill of Jesus ostensibly to explain the 
adoption of the place by the Catholic Diocese of Wa as a pilgrimage centre for its followers. 
The Black Volta which is at the Western part of the constituency and which also serves as a 
boundary between the constituency and Burkina-Faso. This is the main river within the area 
with its several tributaries such as, the Kamba/Dangbang, Nawer, Duoda and Kokoligu-baa. 
These tributaries if utilized, could offer an agro-based employment for the youth who migrate 
to the south in search of non-existing jobs during the dry season. 
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Geologically, the rock formation within the constituency is essentially brimian with dotted 
outcrops of granite. The constituency mineral is largely unexplored. Some reconnaissance 
work indicates the presence of minor occurrences of manganese, traces of gold and diamond, 
iron ore and clay. As a result of a well-developed fracture pattern in the rocks, the potential 
for obtaining ground water in the area is very high. 
The soils in the area consist mostly of laterite soils. These are developed from the birimian 
and granite rocks which underlie the area. There are also strips of alluvial soils along the flood 
plains of the Black Volta as well as sandy loams a long some of its tributaries. The general 
nature of the soils, coupled with the traditional land use practices and type of rainfall, tend to 
have adverse effect on crop production which tend to make a lot of the inhabitants poor since 
agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of the area. 
 
3.6 THE TRADITIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE 
Bodomo (1997, p3) stated that before indirect rule the Dagaaba had evolved a decentralized 
system of government headed by the “tindaana” (land owner) who was both the religious and 
political head of his area responsible for the cultural, religious, economic and social welfare 
of his people but the British policy of indirect rule altered this system and therefore the 
Dagaaba are now organized under chiefdoms and paramouncies. 
The constituency is made up of one main ethnic group called the Dagabas. They speak a 
Dagaare but very slightly few dialectical differences exist amongst them. Apart from the 
indigenous ethnic group, there are people from almost all ethnic groups found in Ghana in the 
area. 
The traditional authority starts from the household level with the family head who is always a 
man. Members of his family look up to him for advice and final determination of issues and 
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cases but sometimes other members within the family assist him to perform such functions. It 
must however be noted that, with westernization, modernization, education, civilization and 
urbanization, the role play by the head of the family is fast diminishing. 
 
Various family heads form the council of elders at the village and the community level. All 
the community heads come under a divisional chief and the various divisional chiefs fall 
under a paramount chief who is assisted by council of elders who act as advisory body. 
Since chieftaincy remains an important institution of traditional governance in contempory 
Ghana (Odotei and Awedoba 2006, p12), the constituency has two paramouncies, namely 
Lawra and Nandom headed by the Lawra Naa and Nandom Naa respectively. Coincidentally 
each paramouncy has eight Divisional Chiefs and a number of sub-divisional chiefs under 
them. In traditional governance, the Nandom Naa is the highest authority within the Nandom 
traditional area and he is customarily subject to no traditional authority. The Nandom Naa 
comes from the Bekuone clan (Kunbour 2009, p.95) and it is only an individual who is a 
legitimate member of the Bekuone clan that can ascend to the royal throne as Nandom Naa. 
Heir ship to the Nandom throne is basically patrilineal (Kunbour, 2009) and there is no 
recognition of women or queen mothers as it exist among the Akans. In the three northern 
regions the postion of chiefs are basically for men except Dagbon where three positions 
namely Kukulogu, Kpatuaya and Gundogu seats are reserved for the daughters of the Ya-Na 
(Odotei 2006, pp83-84) 
In the Lawra traditional area, the practice is the same. The Lawra Naa who is the paramount 
chief is the overload of Lawra and he comes from the Kusielle clan and by virtue of custom, 
all his elders also come from the Kusielle clan and to be able to ascend to the Lawra royal 
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throne, you must be a male from the Kusille clan and therefore women have no portion in this 
royal position. 
From the village level to the paramouncy, there is another traditional leader called the 
“Tindaana” which literary means the owner of the land. His ownership is limited to the 
traditional ancestral god of the land called Tengan. It is his birth right to pour libation and 
other sacrifices to the land god – Tengan and this explains why in Dagaare culture, mostly at 
public functions, chiefs do not pour libation, instead it is the Tindaana. While the chief rules 
the people and the resources physically, the Tindaana cares for their spiritual needs through 
the Tengan, consequently his functions are confined to the spiritual realm of libation pouring , 
sacrifice and pacification of earthgods (Kunbour 2009).  
 
3.7 TRADITIONAL AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND BELIEFS 
Traditionally the Dagaabas of the Lawra constituency believe in life after death (Kunkuure, 
1985). This is a cultural believe but not religious and since culture shapes the people of the 
area from the oldest to the youngest (Boulding 1994) then it cuts across almost all the 
religions. When someone dies, the corps is laid in state outside under a shade for all and 
sundry to pay their last respect. Gifts in the form of money, white cowry, birds, animals and 
farm produce are offered to the dead person at his/her funeral. If the dead person is a 
resourceful man/woman, a cow is slaughtered so that he/she will ride it to the ancestral land. 
Dirges are sung to praise or condemn those who lived good life or bad life respectively. The 
first three or four days after burial, food is normally reserved for the dead person as it is 
believed that, the person‟s spirit hovers around. The persons final funeral rites is quickly 
performed in order to pave the way for his/her to get to the ancestors which as if to agree with 
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Plato‟s principle that the soul is the holiest part of man and must be honored (Saunders & 
Gergel 1990, pp.143-144) and finally the Dagaabas also believed in the re-incarnation of the 
ancestors. 
The people in the area practice patrilineal system of inheritance. Under this system, the male 
children inherit their father with the eldest son serving as a trustee. The most senior surviving 
brother/cousin of the deceased act as a father to the children and in most cases, he is consulted 
for advice and direction. 
Religiously, Christianity dominate with a figure of 57,662 (56%), follows by traditional 
religion 36,884 (36.46%). Those who do not belong to any of the three mentioned religions 
constitute 0.72% (728). (source: Lawra District Profile, 2011). 
As it is seen from the above figures, Christianity commands a large following. The Catholic 
Church which was established in the constituency over a century ago commands about 95% 
of the Christians members. The reason why the Catholic Church dominates the area is because 
of the numerous social interventions that the church introduced. These interventions were in a 
form of educational institutions, health facilities, vocational training centres, and other 
poverty alleviation and social relief services (Mc. Coy 1983, p148). These interventions 
indeed helped the inhabitants a lot and that made them to flog to the Catholic Church. 
 
Apart from being the dominant religion in the constituency, the number of catholic followers 
in Lawra is the largest in the whole of the Wa Diocese of the Upper West Region. Nandom 
dominates in terms of priesthood as you can find two (2) to three (3) priests coming from one 
family. The first Bishop of the Wa Diocese, late Cardinal Porekuu Dery hailed from Nandom 
Ko and the current Bishop, his Lordship Bishop Paul Bemile also come from Nandom. To 
compensate them for their large faith a hill at Nandom Ko was designated as Yezu Tang 
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(literally means the hill of Jesus) and made a pilgrimage centre, where Christians all over the 
Diocese make journeys to renew their religious faith. There are two most important festivals 
that are celebrated within the constituency. The Lawra people celebrate the Kobine festival 
whilst the Nandom people observe the Kakube festival. 
 
3.8 POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE CONSTITUENCY 
The highest political and administrative body within the constituency is the Lawra District 
Assembly, which is charged with the responsibility of formulating and executing plans, 
programmes, projects and strategies for the overall sustainable development of the people in 
the constituency. Apart from the district assembly (DA) which is the structure of local 
government is regarded as critical for training both the local people and political leaders for 
democratic dispensation (Amponsah and Boafo-Arthur 2003, p49).  
 
Politically, the District Chief Executive who is appointed by the president and endorsed by the 
Assembly, is the head of the Assembly. He is the representative of the president at the District 
level, however, administratively  the District Coordinating Director (DCD)  heads the District 
and he is also the Secretary to the Assembly. 
The Lawra District Assembly is made up of fifty four Assembly persons. Out of this thirty six 
(36) are elected, sixteen (16) are government appointees in consonance with the Local 
Government Act 462 of 1993 and the rest of the two (2) are the District Chief Executive and 
the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency. The DCE has a voting right and the MP 
who is an ex-officio member has no voting rights. 
The Lawra District Assembly is made up of two town councils – Nandom and Lawra, six area 
councils – Babile, Eremon, Babseble Ko, Puffien and Zanbo and one hundred and sixteen 
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(116) Unit Committee. The meetings of the Assembly are chaired by the presiding member 
who is elected from among the members to serve not more than two (2) terms of four years 
each. Immediately below the Assembly is the Executive Committee which is made up of 30% 
of the Assembly members and chaired by the DCE. This committee is responsible for general 
policy and development direction of the District. This Executive Committee operates through 
various sub-committees which are coordinated by the District Coordinating Director. There 
are five (5) sub-committees which are mandatory according to the Local Government Act. 
The law however, also allows the Assembly to appoint other sub-committees as maybe 
required by the peculiar social, economic conditions and specific development objectives of 
the people. The sub-committees in the Lawra District Assembly are the following: 
1. Finance and Administration sub-committee 
2. Agricultural sub-committee 
3. Development planning sub-committee 
4. Justice and security sub-committee 
5. Health sub-committee 
6. Education sub-committee 
7. Women and children sub-committee 
8. Environmental protection sub-committee 
9. Works sub-committee 
10. Complaints sub-committee. 
Aside the Assembly itself, there are decentralized government departments which operates 
within the ambit of the Lawra District Assembly. Their activities are coordinated by the 
Assembly to ensure efficient services to the people. “There is no doubt that the district 
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assemblies are agent of local governance and were created to generate good contacts with the 
citizens” (Amposah and Boafo-Arthur 2003, p49) and it is true the above committees that it is 
able to perform its functions well and therefore it is in the light of the important role that the 
district assemblies play that the Constitution of Ghana, article 241(3) has entrench district 
assemblies as the highest decision making bodies. According to Kunbour (2009, p1) the 
existence of the district assembly are meant to develop local communities, however over the 
years these communities still remains underdeveloped particularly northern Ghana and more 
specifically Upper West Region of which Lawra district is a part. 
 
3.9 SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE 
The Lawra constituency and for that matter the Lawra District is endowed with a number of 
social infrastructure especially in the health, education and financial sectors. On the health 
front, there are two hospitals. The first one is at Lawra, which serves as the District hospital 
and the second one is St Theresa‟s hospital located at Nandom. In addition, the constituency 
also operates 12 CHPS centres through which health services are rendered to the people. More 
importantly the fact that the constituency has two health training centres, one of them is the 
Health Assistant training school at Lawra and the other one is the midwifery training school at 
Nandom. 
On the part of education, the constituency can boast of the following. 
1. Kindergarten 75 
2. Primary schools 59 
3. Junior High schools 42 
4. Vocation centers are seven which are (1) Nandom Vocational Institute (2) St Ann‟s 
Vocational Institute (3) St. Mary Vocational school, (4) Boo Vocational school (5) 
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Tanchara Vocational Institute (6) Baare Xylophone training centre (7) Binne Basket 
Making centre at Lawra. 
5. Senior High Schools are four (4) which are Nandom Senior High, Lawra Senior High, 
Koo Senior High and Eremon Senior High/Technical. 
The constituency has three main markets located at Lawra, Babile and Nandom. The 
remaining markets which are very small and underdeveloped are located at Eremon, Boo 
Baseble, Tuo Pare, Domwine  and Zambo. 
 
Four (4) financial institutions can be found within the constituency and they are  
1. Ghana Commercial Bank, Lawra 
2. Nandom Rural Bank, Nandom 
3. Kuoriba Langtaa Credit Union, Nandom 
4. The Lawra Area Rural Bank 
In terms of tourism, the constituency is rich in natural, cultural, historical site attractions: 
Notably among them are: 
1. Crocodile Pond at Eremon 
2. The Detention Camp of the late president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah 
3. The slave centers located at Gengenkpe and Zimuopare 
4. The stone church at Nandom 
5. The Brifoh Natural Spring 
 
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3.10 ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE 
The economy of the constituency is agricultural based. The agriculture sector employs about 
80% of the active people, while commerce and industry account for 18.2% and 0.8% 
respectively (sources: Lawra District Profile). 
Agriculture, which is the major activity that engages about 80% of the population, is centred 
on crops and livestock production.  This is not surprising since the main economic activity of 
the Upper West region is basically Agriculture (Kunbour 2009, p9). The crops mainly grown 
by the farmers are corn, millet, maize, cowpea, groundnuts, rice, soybean and bambara beans. 
It has over the years established itself as the marketing centre for goats and sheep. This is not 
suprising as “in eceomic terms the Dagaare speaking population is heavily agragarian” 
(Bodomo 1997, p3). The Babile market receives buyers from Wa (the regional capital) 
Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions (source: District Profile). All these farming activities are 
rain fed and since rainfall within the constituency is characterized by seasonality, variability 
and unreliability (Kunbour 2009. P.9) and over the years climatic conditions for farming 
towards the Northern Frontier which borders the Sahelian Republic of Burkina Faso gets 
worse (Dickson, 1990) and yields from crops have always not been encouraging. This throw a 
lot of families into prolong hunger period within the year. Although a number of dams and 
dugout exist within the constituency which are the Kokolign dambs, Eremon Naburnye damb, 
Guo damb, Tanchara No. 1 and No. 2 dams. The Babile damb, Eremon Soriguon dugout, 
Brutu dugout and susu dugout, the people have not made good use of them, in terms of 
irrigation. These dams and dugout are rather used to water their animals especially in the dry 
season. Fortunately, because the constituency is grassland dominated, animal rearing does 
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very well and as a result the Lawra District has a huge comparative advantage in the area of 
goat and sheep rearing and mammals 
Formal Manufacturing Industrial activities do not exist in the District. The sector is dominated 
by small scale industrial activities. These activities are mostly centred on agro-processing. 
These include the processing of sheanut, dawadawa, rice and the brewing of pito and 
production of smocks, which is the traditional wear of the people. 
The service sub-sector in the constituency is dominated by trade and commerce which is 
mostly done by women. This involves the buying and selling of agric based goods. Banking 
services is provided by four (4) banks namely, the Ghana Commercial Bank Lawra Branch, 
Nandom Rural Bank, Kuoriba Langtaa Credit Union at Nandom and the Lawra Area Rural 
Bank. 
 
3.11 CONCLUSION 
From the afore discussion it is clear that the economy of the constituency is dominated by 
agriculture and the land area of 1051.2 square km can comfortably support that (District 
profile, 2011). However these claim is contested by Songsore & Denkabe (1985, p.34) which 
states that there is pressure on land use along the North-Western corridors of the Hamile-Wa 
stretch within which Lawra lies. But unfortunately due to the prolonged dry season coupled 
with only one raining season make agricultural activities unproductive and unattractive. This 
will certainly lead to poverty since agriculture is the main stay of the inhabitant (80% are 
employ by agriculture) and this poverty is likely to make the inhabitant vulnerable to 
politicians.  
 
 
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REFERENCES 
 
1. Planning Department, Law District Assembly (2011), profile of Law District. 
2. Kunbour, B. (2009).  Law and Decentralized Development in Northern Ghana. Agape 
Printing Press, Accra.  
3. Interview with the  District Planning Officer, 2011. 
4. District Planning and Co-ordinating Unit (DPCU, 2009), Estimated Population Lawra 
District. 
5. Ghana Statistical Service (2012). 2010 Population and Housing Census; Demographic 
Characteristics of Nandom.    
6. Bodomo, A. (1997). The structure of Dagaare, CSLI publications, California. 
7. Odotei, I.K. & Awedoba A.K. (2006) (eds) Chieftaincy in Ghana, Governance and 
Development. Sub-Sahara publishers, Ghana.  
8. Odotei, I.K. (2006) “Women in male corridors of power” in Odotei, I.K. & Awedoba, 
A.K. (eds) Chieftaincy in Ghana, Culture, Governance and Development. Sub-
Sahara publisher Ghana.  
9. Kunkuure, E. (1985). The Destiny of Man: Dagaare beliefs in Dialogue with Christian 
Eschatology. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.  
10. Boulding, E. (1994) The Dynamics of reshaping the social order: Old Actors, New Actors 
in Somardjan, S & Thompson, K. W. (eds) Culture, Devlopment and 
Democracy: The role of the Intellectual. United Nations Unity Press. Tokyo.  
11. Saunders, T.J. & Gergel, T. (1990) (translators).  Plato, The Laws, Penguin group, 
London. 
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12. Mc Coy R.F. (1983) GREAT THINGS HAPPENED: A personal memoir of the first 
Christian Missionaries among the Dagaabas and Sisaalas of North-West 
Ghana, North American society. 
13. Amposah, N. & Boafo-Arthur, K. (2003). Local Government in Ghana: Grass root 
Participation in the 2002 Local Government Elections, Uniflow Publishing 
Ltd, Accra. 
14. Dickson, K.B. (1990). A new Geography of Ghana, London: Longman. 
15. Songsore, J & Denkabe, A. (1995). Challenging Rural Poverty in Northern Ghana: The 
case of the Upper West Region: Norway, University of Trondheim.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER FOUR 
EXPLAINING CHANGE IN VOTER BEHAVIOUR -ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS 
4.1 INTRODUCTION 
The previous chapters of this study dealt with the theoretical basis of the study and also all the 
parties, candidates and issues involved in the parliamentary elections in Lawra constituency 
since 1992. In this chapter, the trend of voting and the data collected from the survey in the 
constituency would be critically analyzed within the context of the existing literature. 
4.2   TREND OF VOTING IN LAWRA CONSTITUENCY 
Change in voter behavior means a departure from the previous way of voting for candidates 
and parties by the electorate. In the Lawra constituency the voting pattern for a majority of the 
electorates, to a large extent has been one sided in favour of the NDC party. A majority of 
voters always voted for the NDC presidential and parliamentary candidates more than other 
political parties. The closest contender has always been the NPP. The following presidential 
results attest to the above assertion. 
Table 4.1: Presidential results for NDC & NPP from1996-2008 
Year  Party Candidate Votes Percentages 
1996 
1996 
2000 
2000 
2004 
2004 
2008 
2008 
 NDC 
NPP 
NDC 
NPP 
NDC 
NPP 
NDC 
NPP 
J.J. Rawlins 
J.A. Kuffour 
E.J. Atta-Mills 
J.A. KUffour 
J.E.A. Mills 
J.A. Kuffour 
J.E.A. Mills 
Nana Akufu-Addo 
26,599 
2,199 
22,207 
3,109 
20,162% 
9,474 
15,830 
12,948 
81.5% 
6.7% 
73.7% 
10.3% 
64.95% 
30.52% 
51.8% 
42.4% 
Source: Electoral Commission, 2012 
 
 
In fact, the trend has not been different in terms of the parliamentary elections. For example: 
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Table 4.2: Parliamentary results for NDC & NPP from 1996-2004 
Year  Party Candidate Votes Percentages 
1996 
1996 
2000 
2000 
2004 
2004 
 NDC 
NPP 
NDC 
NPP 
NDC 
NPP 
Bondong A. Koyiri 
Naapie Gumil 
Benjamin Kunbuor 
Stephen Y. Engmen 
Benjamin Kunbuor 
Ambrose Dery 
22,441 
2,192 
22,347 
3,487 
19,306 
10,549 
43.1% 
4.4% 
74.4% 
11.6% 
58% 
31.7% 
Source: Electoral Commission, 2012 
However, in the 2008 parliamentary elections, the trend as noticed in the above table was 
broken, when the opposition NPP parliamentary candidate Ambrose Dery won the elections 
by 47.08% (14,742 votes) whilst the NDC candidate, Benjamin Kumbuor placed second with 
44.02% (13,783 votes) (EC, 2012) in an area that is considered as one of the strong holds of 
the NDC.  
Table 4.3: Parliamentary results for all parties in 2008 
Year  
Party Candidate Votes Percentages 
2008 
2008 
2008 
2008 
2008 
2008 
 NPP 
NDC 
DFP 
PNC 
DPP 
CPP 
Ambrose P. Dery 
Benjamin Kunbuor 
Bede Ziedeng 
Fatchu Henery 
Ngmenkye C. Yelvelle 
Dabuo Wilson 
14,742 
13,783 
1,428 
566 
507 
288 
47% 
44% 
4.6% 
1.8% 
1.6% 
0.9% 
(Source: Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, 2010) 
Since 1992 for the first time, the NDC as a party has lost elections in the Lawra constituency  
to an opposition party. In fact this is a puzzle for many NDC members and sympathizers and 
some keen political observers. 
Against the background of this puzzle, one may ask the following questions. What really 
informs the choices of the electorate in Lawra when it comes to elections? Why did the NDC 
parliamentary candidate(s) win all the elections conducted from 1992 to 2004 but lost in the 
2008? What factors favoured the NPP parliamentary candidate to win the 2008 elections.? 
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Did the NPP parliamentary candidate win the elections genuinely or it was rigged in his 
favour? What really led to this change in voting behavior and what lessons can politicians, 
political parties and the general public learn from this change of events? This chapter 
examines and analyzes these questions and many other issues in details and it is based on 
questionnaires administered in Lawra constituency from 4th -19th May, 2012. 
4.3 ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS 
BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF RESPONDENTS 
 
Table 4.4 Distribution of Respondent by Gender 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Male 91 60.7 60.7 60.7 
Female 59 39.3 39.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Table 4.4 shows the gender distribution of respondents. Out of the total number of 150 people 
that were sampled and interview 60.7% of them were men while the remaining 39.3% were 
women. The reason why we had larger male respondents to females was the fact that, the 
males were more willing and prepared to answer the questionnaire. In Ghana when it comes 
to talking to a stranger or an officer the females traditionally prefer to defer to their husbands 
or male relations (Frempong, 2004). 
 
    Table 4.5 Age Distribution of Respondents 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid 25-34 37 24.7 24.7 24.7 
35-44 35 23.3 23.3 48.0 
45-54 58 38.7 38.7 86.7 
55 and above 20 13.3 13.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
    Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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Going by table 4.5 above, the most dominant age group has been that of 45-54 years, which 
scored 38.7%. This was followed by 25-34 which had 24.7%. 35-44 and 55 and above had 
23.3 and 13.3 respectively. Going by this distribution the dominant group of 45-54 (38.7%) 
all things being equal are people who have been voting since 1992 and therefore would better 
appreciate all the issues raised during the survey. 
 
Table 4.6 Marital Status of Respondent 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Married 90 60.0 60.0 60.0 
Single 39 26.0 26.0 86.0 
Widowed 15 10.0 10.0 96.0 
Divorced 6 4.0 4.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
 Source: Field Survey, 2012 
From table 4.6 above, 60% of the people who responded to the questionnaires said they were 
married. This was followed by 26% who said they were single. The third position was 
occupied by those who said they were widowed and they constitute 10%, lastly 4% said they 
had divorced their partners. Indeed in rural areas women are mostly not interested in politics 
and tend to go by the choice of their husbands. 
    Table 4.7 Educational Level of Respondents 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Primary-JSS 35 23.3 23.3 23.3 
Secondary 24 16.0 16.0 39.3 
Tertiary 16 10.7 10.7 50.0 
None 75 50.0 50.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
    Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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Exactly 50% of the respondents in table 4.7 have never been to school at all. This was 
followed by 35% who indicated that they had some elementary education from primary to JSS 
or middle school. 24% and 16% represented those who went to secondary and tertiary 
educational institutions respectively. Comparing these figures and generalizing them in the 
constituency one may say that the literacy rate is very low simple because the illiteracy rate is 
very high. It is rather unfortunate that, those in the tertiary level who are capable of making 
meaningful contribution to the development of the area and the nation as a whole constitute 
the smallest number. High educational attainment is not something characteristic of the rural 
areas in Ghana. The highest level has always been secondary or teacher training with isolated 
few with tertiary qualification (Debrah, 2004 p20). This survey did not differ from the generic 
view of educational level of rural respondents. Those who are stark illiterates and who may 
not be in a better position to contribute to national development are in the majority of 50%. 
As one of the oldest District in Upper West, so much has been done in terms of education, 
there is the need to do more. Notwithstanding the picture painted above, Lawra is still far 
better and ahead of some of the newly created constituencies in the region such as Wa East 
and Sisala West which cannot even boast of a single secondary educational institution. 
    Table 4.8 Religious Denomination of Respondents 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Christian 98 65.3 65.3 65.3 
Muslim 12 8.0 8.0 73.3 
Traditionalist 40 26.7 26.7 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
    Source: Field Survey, 2012 
A whooping majority of 65.3% of the respondents in table 4.8 indicated that they were 
Christians. This was followed by traditionalist with 26.7%. The third group was Muslims with 
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8%. These figures correlate with those provided in the District profile which shows that 
Christians are 57%. Traditionalist 36.6% and Muslims constitute 4.19% (Lawra district 
profile, 2011). Though the figures from the two sources are not the same, they all point to one 
thing. That Christians are the majority in the area and this is followed by the traditional 
worshippers and Muslims respectively. This is not a surprise since Lawra is one of the areas 
that received Christianity from the early white missionaries (Mc Coy, 1983 p142) and the first 
Catholic Bishop of the Wa Diocese in the person of the late Cardinal Porkuu Dery came from 
Nandom. 
 
Table 4.9 Occupation of Respondents 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Student 9 6.0 6.0 6.0 
Civil/Public servant 22 14.7 14.7 20.7 
Farming/Fishing 72 48.0 48.0 68.7 
Businessman/woman 28 18.7 18.7 87.3 
Unemployed 19 12.7 12.7 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
 Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Fourty-eight (48) percent of the respondents in table 4.9 said hat they were either farmers or 
fishermen. As Dagaaba farming is the predominant occupation of most of the inhabitants of 
Lawra (Kunbour, 2009). A few of them too go in to fishing sometimes combining it with 
farming. The fishing is done on the Black Volta river which borders the District to the West. 
Surprisingly the figure of 48% falls far below the District estimated figure of 80% of 
agriculture contributing to the District economy. If the District figure of 80% is something 
credible, then three things are suspected. First, most of the respondents may not be genuine 
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with their responses to their occupational background due to high preference for white color 
jobs.  
Second, since the survey was conducted during an off-farming season, some of the 
respondents would have probably given whatever activity that had occupied them at that 
moment as their occupation. The reason is that the area has only one rainy season and since 
farming is rained-fed in the area, during the dry season, most farmers either engage in other 
activities to earn them income or become seasonally unemployed at that time. Some of the 
respondents really have dual occupation. Most of the businessmen and women except those in 
Lawra and Nandom towns, carry their wares to market on market days for sale and on non-
market days, they find their way to the farm. Some also during the dry season go into pito 
brewing and bean cakes preparation and as soon as the farming season sets in, they would 
abandon these businesses for the farm. In these instances the respondent has the right as to 
which of them should be his/her occupation since both farming and business earn him/her 
income.  
Third, the sample size may not have captured enough farmers. However, if the figure of 80% 
by the District is not credible to accept, then one may say that the figure is over estimated. 
The percentage of the respondents who were civil and public servants was 14.7%. This 
include all sort of government paid jobs and Zoomlion employment. It is rather heart-
warming that out of 150 people, only 19 representing 12.7% said they were unemployed. This 
low unemployment figure recorded may be explained by what Bluwey (1998, p344) argues 
that in most parts of rural Ghana everyone is engaged in some form of activity in order to earn 
a living since rural people will not want to be associated with unemployment as it is equated 
to being lazy. In reality, those who are gainfully employed are likely to vote according to their 
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conscience as compared to those who are unemployed and can be easily manipulated by 
politicians through vote buying. 
Table 4.10 Electoral areas chosen 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Babile 15 10.0 10.0 10.0 
Lawra zongo 15 10.0 10.0 20.0 
Zinkaa/Yagtuuri 15 10.0 10.0 30.0 
Zambo 15 10.0 10.0 40.0 
Danko 15 10.0 10.0 50.0 
Bu 15 10.0 10.0 60.0 
Baseble 15 10.0 10.0 70.0 
Nandom West 15 10.0 10.0 80.0 
Kogle 15 10.0 10.0 90.0 
Ko 15 10.0 10.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
 Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Table 4.10 is a display of the electoral areas chosen. The constituency was divided into two. 
Lawra and Nandom. The reason for dividing the constituency in to two was that, though the 
area is an NDC stronghold, the strength of the NDC is much more in Nandom than in Lawra 
traditional area. On the other hand, though the area is one of the weak holds of the NPP, the 
party‟s weakness is less in Lawra traditional area than in Nandom. To be fair to the two rival 
parties, the constituency was divided into two and five electoral areas chosen from each since 
they have almost the same number of electoral areas. 
Lawra has 29 electoral areas while Nandom has 25. The first five, Babile, Lawra Zongo, 
Zinkaa/Yagtuuri, Zambo and Dako represent the Lawra traditional area, while Bu, Baseble, 
Nandom West, Kogle and Ko represent Nandom traditional area.  Coincidently, the 
hometown of Benjamin Kumbuor, the NDC parliamentary candidate in the 2008 elections 
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was sampled and that is Baseble. Fifteen (15) questionnaires each were administered in all the 
ten (10) sampled electoral areas. 
4.4 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ELECTORATES IN ELECTIONS 
Table 4.11:  Voter Choice 
 
When voting for a candidate, which one of the following will you consider first and most important? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Personality 18 12.0 12.0 12.0 
Development issues 89 59.3 59.3 71.3 
Personal material gains 22 14.7 14.7 86.0 
The party he/she belongs 21 14.0 14.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
“Given that voters have a choice, how do they decide who to vote for” (Hague and Harrop 
2004, p.159). 
Table 4.11 displays four (4) major issues that influenced the choice of the electorates in the 
constituency. The sampled respondents were interviewed as to which of them would be 
considered as first and most important. In their responses, a substantive majority of 59.3% 
said they would consider development issues as first and most important. In other words, they 
would first look out for that candidate who can bring development to the constituency. If this 
is something credible to go by, then, we can say that such voters are sociotropic (Sanders 
1994, p.81) in that they vote for “the good of the whole in which the parts share” “the greatest 
good of the greatest number” (Dwivedi 2005, p.35). This demonstrates that the Lawra 
constituents are matured because when there is development, the benefit is far spread to 
many.  
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Personal material gains placed second after development issues. Such self-centered and 
egocentric voters (Sanders 1994, p.81) constitute 14.7%. In fact it is the sovereign right of the 
respondents who said they would consider first material gains they would get or anticipate to 
get from a candidate before voting for him/her. Their argument is simple, they are poor rural 
electorates who vote for politicians to come to Accra to enjoy the benefits of urbanization. 
They see nothing or little of the development that politicians promise them during elections 
and most of them after winning their elections, they are only seen four years time when 
elections are drawing nearer. “This is to be expected of rural voters whose interests are basic 
needs of life” (Bluwey, 1998 p352).  For such people they see politicians as businessmen who 
canvass for votes to go and profit at the national level and for that matter they must collect 
their share of the national cake from politicians before voting for them. Yet still 14% 
indicated that they would cast their votes based on party lines (Campbell et al, 1960). To such 
respondents, whether the candidate has performed or will perform is not their business. Since 
the person contesting is standing on the ticket of a party they believe in is their priority. Lastly 
12% said that they would consider the personality of the candidate first before voting. 
Personality here means the general behavior of the candidate including his level of honesty, 
reciprocal respect from the community, and his/her level of humility and family relations. All 
the four factors do influence the voters during elections but at varying degree. 
 
4.5 FACTORS THAT AIDED NDC IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS FROM 
1992-2004 
Six factors were identified to have aided the NDC to dominate the electoral scene from 1992 
to 2004 especially. These factors were posed to respondents in the form of questions to either 
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deny or confirm that indeed they (factors) did play a major role in the NDC winning spree 
from 1992 to 2004. The following were the outcome of the responses. 
 
Table 4.12 NDC popularity. 
 
From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and Kumbuor) won all the 
parliamentary elections that were organized. Is it because the NDC is more popular than other parties? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 130 86.7 86.7 86.7 
No 20 13.3 13.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
   Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
From table 4.12, the opinions of respondents were sought as to whether the NDC is more 
popular than other parties in the constituency and that is why it won all the parliamentary 
elections from 1992-2004. A smaller percentage of 13.3 responded in the negative, whilst a 
greater percentage of 86.7 affirmed and confirmed that indeed the NDC party is more popular 
than other political parties in Lawra and that explains its dominance of the electoral contest 
since the beginning of the Fourth Republic till 2004. Do electorates vote for the NDC for its 
popularity sake or is that the NDC can solve their problem since according to Aristotle 
politics is “that problem solving tool” (Ebenstein 1951, p.113). 
 
 
Table 4.13 The Rawlings factor. 
 
From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and Kumbuor) won all the 
parliamentary elections that were organized. Is it because of the Rawlings factor in the NDC whom 
many liked and admire as a father and a saviour? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 121 80.7 80.7 80.7 
No 29 19.3 19.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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A second factor that this research wanted to find out whether it did play to the advantage of 
the NDC in elections was the Rawlings factor in the NDC whom many members admire and 
like as a father and a saviour. The responses from table 4.13 shows that overwhelming 
majority of 80.7% agreed that indeed the Rawlings factor helped the NDC to win the 
parliamentary elections from 1992 to 2004, whilst a minority of 19.3% disagreed. In fact, 
most NDC supporters in the constituency like and admire the personality of Rawlings. They 
see him as father because he created the Upper West Region and as a saviour because they 
claimed his revolutionary activities brought positive change to Ghanaians. Some of such 
supporters are not able to separate the personality of Rawlings from the party.  
 
In actual fact the popularity of Rawlings helped the NDC party in Lawra in particular and the 
nation at large. Bluwey (1998, p348) buttress this with the fact that “as of now it would be 
extremely difficult for even the loyal member of the opposition to dispute seriously that J.J. 
Rawlins is the most popular political personality in Ghana” and by dint of hard work 
Rawlings has managed to established the NDC as the third force in Ghanaian Politics (Nugent 
2007, p.259; Larvie & Badu 1996, p.44). 
 
Table 4.14 NDC – Home Party 
 
From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and Kumbuor) won all the 
parliamentary elections that were organized. Is it because the NDC is seen as a home party? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 138 92.0 92.0 92.0 
No 12 8.0 8.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
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In addition to the above, the NDC is seen as a home party in the area and when respondents 
were interviewed, a small number of 12 people representing 8% in table 4.14 did not agree 
but an overwhelming majority of 138 people representing 92% agreed that the NDC is seen as 
a home party in the area. It is a home party because supporters claim that it is the party that is 
more sympathetic towards Northerners and give more ministerial positions to Northerners 
when it is in power, and for that matter it is a home party for those in Lawra and Nandom 
since they are part of Northerners. Just like in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, voting patterns 
were associated with the identification of religious, ethnic or geographical location (Hague & 
Harrop 2004, pp.156-157) and this case “voting is seen as an act of affirmation instead of a 
choice (Campbell et al, 1960). 
Table 4.15 NDC incumbency. 
 
From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and Kumbuor) won all the 
parliamentary elections that were organized. Is it because of incumbency? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 134 89.3 89.3 89.3 
No 16 10.7 10.7 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
From table 4.15, 10.7% agree that, incumbency did not help the NDC from 1992 –2004 to 
win the parliamentary elections. This was however; contested by a larger percentage of 89.3% 
who agreed that incumbency was a major factor that propelled the NDC into greater height in 
the said elections (Nugent, 2007). In the 1992 elections, the provisional National Defense 
Council (PNDC) which changed into NDC was the incumbent government. In the 1996 
elections, it was the NDC that was in power and in the 2000 elections. The NDC was the 
government that organized these elections. Even in the 2004 elections that the NDC was out 
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of power, their parliamentary candidate Benjamin Kumbuor was the incumbent member of 
parliament for Lawra and of course since in Ghana incumbency goes with a lot of political 
largesse, it certainly attract a lot to the ruling party. African governments in general are 
known to be less scrupulous in exploiting incumbency while denying their political opponents 
to access state resources. (Kumado 1996).  
 
Table 4.16 NDC- development oriented. 
 
From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and Kumbuor) won all 
the parliamentary elections that were organized. Is it because the NDC is development oriented 
than other parties? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 116 77.3 77.3 77.3 
No 34 22.7 22.7 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
In table 4.16, 22.7 percent of the respondents said that the NDC is not development oriented 
than other parties in the constituency as compared to 77.3 who indicated that the NDC is more 
development oriented than other partiers. If this is really true, then the statement by Afari-
Gyan and Mayer that “democracy is increasingly seen as the basis for political and economic 
development in developing counties is a truism (Kumado, 1996).   Out of the six factors that 
were assessed to be responsible for the NDC fortunes from 1992 – 2004, it is this factor that 
attracted the highest negative response of 22.7%. When the researcher tried to investigate 
further, the response was that in spite of the massive support to the NDC, the constituency 
cannot boast of a one kilometer tar road despite the long rule of the NDC. 
 
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Table 4.17 NDC presented popular candidates. 
 
From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and Kumbuor) won all 
the parliamentary elections that were organized. Is it because the NDC presented popular 
candidates? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 132 88.0 88.0 88.0 
No 18 12.0 12.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Finally, the respondents were interviewed whether the NDC presented popular candidates 
from 1992 to 2004 and that explain why they (candidates) were more successful than others. 
88% were in affirmative with the explanation that in 1992 the NDC presented Ken Kunfaa 
who was then NDC regional secretary. In 1996, the party presented Bondong Anthony Koyiri 
who was the then Regional Director of Centre for National Culture (CNC) and in the 2000 
and 2004 elections; a renowned Doctor of Philosophy in Law, Benjamin Kumbuor was 
presented. This means the quality and personality of candidates matter in elections (Evans 
2004, p6).   
 
However, the has been countered by 12% of the respondent who think that the NDC 
candidates cannot be said to be more popular than other contestants. For example in 1992, 
1996 and 2000 a renowned medical surgeon and at the same time the Regional Director of 
Health Services in the person of Edward N. Gyader stood on the ticket of the PNC in the 
constituency. Gyader as a medical doctor meets and deals with more people than a Regional 
Director for CNC. In 2000, Robert Kuunta Azumah who stood on the ticket of the NPP was 
one time regional commissioner for Northern Region under the Acheampong regime. 
Ambrose Dery in 2004 stood on the ticket of the NPP and he was a renowned practising 
lawyer whose popularity soared with his handling of high profile cases including that of 
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Malam Issah‟s case, the then sports minister under president Kufuor‟s first term of office. So 
in terms of law, many people heard of Ambrose Dery than Benjamin Kumbuor. 
 
4.6 VOTING PATTERN IN 2004 AND 2008 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 
Fig 4.1 Voter choice in 2004 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
To be sure whether there was a change in voter behavior in the 2008 parliamentary elections 
voters who voted in the 2004 and 2008 elections, were interviewed of the candidates they 
voted for. This is to be sure whether from 2004 when the winning spree of the NDC 
parliamentary candidates stopped and the takeover of the opposition NPP in the 2008 
elections, there has been a change in voting pattern. From figure 4.1 above the responses 
given indicate that Benjamin Kunbuor, the NDC candidate won the elections with a larger 
margin of 58%. Coincidently, this was the exact percentage that Benjamin Kumbuor won the 
2004 parliamentary elections in the constituency. His closest opponentl Ambrose Dery of 
NPP scored 28.67%. This is however 3% below the exact figure of 31.7% scored by Ambrose 
Dery in the 2004 parliamentary elections. 
 
 
 
 
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Fig 4.2 Reason for voter choice in 2004 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
Figure 4.2 shows an appreciable percentage of 44% who said that they voted for their choice 
of candidate in figure 4.1 because of party affiliation. This shows that political parties have 
become virtually the basis for contesting for political power in developing counties like 
Ghana. (Allah-Mensah, 2001). However, it must also be admitted that, there are several 
instances where individuals have contested as independent candidates and won or lost. 
Whatever the case may be, in Ghana, many people contest election on the ticket of political 
parties. This was followed by the personality of the candidate which attracted 26%. 
Surprisingly the ability of the candidate to deliver development to the electorates took a third 
position instead of being first. From the statistics provided it can be deduced that, party 
identification and affiliation as postulated by Campbell (1964) played a major role in deciding 
who won the 2004 parliamentary elections in Lawra. 
 
Deducing from this one can project that since it was Benjamin Kumbuor of the NDC who 
won the 2004 parliamentary elections with 58%, there is the likelihood that many voters voted 
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for him because of his party. In Ghanaian politics there are some constituencies that are 
considered strongholds of certain parties. No matter the candidate fielded, he/she will 
certainly win whether he/she is competent or not. The candidate must win the primaries of his 
party and the probability of winning the seat become very high. 
 
Fig 4.3 Voter Choice in 2008 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
To be sure whether there was a change in voting pattern or voting behavior the same people 
who voted in the 2004 parliamentary elections were interviewed as to whom they voted for in 
the 2008 parliamentary elections. The responses from figure 4.3 indicate that 73 people 
representing 48.67% agreed they voted for Ambrose Dery of NPP. Indeed Ambrose Dery won 
the 2008 parliamentary elections with 47% according to the Electoral Commission of Ghana 
and by comparison, it means that he has improved his performance in this survey by 1.7%. 
Ambrose Dery is closely followed by Benjamin Kunbuor of the NDC with 42%. In actual 
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fact, in the 2008 parliamentary elections Benjamin Kumbuor placed second to Ambrose Dery 
with a figure of 44%. This means that by scoring 42% in this survey, he has deteriorated by 
2%. This is normal because, a lot of people always want to associate themselves with success 
and therefore it is possible that some of the people who voted for Kumbuor in the actual 
elections would turn to indicate in this survey that they voted for Ambrose Dery to show that 
they were part of those who voted Ambrose Dery into the member of parliament seat. In 
anyway, anytime the electorates feel that they are not governed well, they have that right 
during election time to vote out those who are performing below expectation and vote in new 
people (Strong, 1977). 
 
Fig 4.4 Reason for voter choice in 2008 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
In the same direction like the 2004 elections, respondents were also interviewed to assign 
reasons for their choice of candidate in figure 4.4. Responses recorded in figure 4.4 showed 
that a substantial 42% said they voted for their choice of candidate in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections because of his ability to deliver development to the constituents. This is in the right 
direction, after all politics is about development and “development is to make poor people less 
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poor by raising their incomes and for individuals , this entails helping them to find greater 
opportunities and to be more productive so that they live better and longer life” (Moss, 2007).  
In the 2004 elections the idea of development rather placed third but has become first in the 
2008 parliamentary elections. The party the candidate belongs to placed second in the 2008 
parliamentary elections with 26.67 but in the 2004 elections, it placed first with 44%. All 
these show that apart from changing from voting for Benjamin Kumbuor of NDC in 2004 
elections to Ambrose Dery of NPP in the 2008 elections, the electorate have also changed 
their reasons for voting from party identification and affiliation to the ability of candidates to 
deliver development. 
4.7 FACTORS THAT POSSIBLY LED TO THE CHANGE IN VOTING PATTERN  
Table 4.18 Use of incumbency in 2008  
 
Which of the following candidates made use of incumbency most during the 2008 
parliamentary elections? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Benjamin Kumbuor 32 21.3 21.3 21.3 
Ambrose Dery 118 78.7 78.7 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
Both Ambrose Dery and Benjamin Kunbuor enjoyed some level of incumbency. Ambrose 
Dery‟s NPP government was the ruling party in power, but Benjamin Kumbuor was the 
incumbent MP in the 2008 parliamentary elections in Lawra. Incumbency plays a major role 
in elections and for this matter respondents were interviewed as to which of the two 
candidates made maximum use of incumbency. The responses in table 4.18 clearly show that 
Ambrose Dery of NPP made good use of incumbency with 78.7% as compared to Benjamin 
Kumbuor of the NDC whom only 21.3% agreed that he made use of incumbency. In fact, it is 
not only Ambrose Dery of NPP that is guilty of exploiting incumbency but the NDC as a 
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party is also guilty of blatantly exploiting incumbency in the 2000 elections (Ahiawodor, 
2001 ) but this incumbency did not help the NDC to win the 2000 election, making it the first 
ruling government in Ghana to lose general elections in Ghana (Ayee, 2001). 
 
Table 4.19 Did incumbency help your choice in 2008? 
 
Did this incumbency help your choice (in question 14) win the elections in 2008? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 117 78.0 78.0 78.0 
No 33 22.0 22.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
A follow up question was posed to respondents to find out whether the candidate they 
indicated that he made use of incumbency really won the election because of that. Table 4.19 
shows that 78% agreed that incumbency helped their choice win the 2008 elections. This 
figure of 78% correlate with 78.7% in table 4.18 who said that Ambrose Dery made use of 
incumbency. Only 22% said that incumbency did not help their choice to win the 2008 
parliamentary elections.  
 
Both the NDC and the NPP accused each other of abusing incumbency during their tenure of 
office (Drah, 2006) and therefore incumbency abusement is not new to the two parties. The 
truth of the matter is that, Ambrose Dery‟s party, the NPP was the incumbent government and 
as a result, he had access to a lot of resources to reach out to the electorates than the NDC 
candidate. These electorates recounted the rural electrification projects at Babile, Kokoligu, 
Pufiem and many other places. They also remembered the National Health Insurance Scheme, 
the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty of which the regional pilot was launched in 
Lawra by Ambrose Dery. Again, Ambrose being the Upper West Regional Minister from 
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2005-2007, was always with his constituents distributing political largesse. All these inured to 
the advantage of the NPP candidate. 
  
Table 4.20  NPP educational campaign 
 
Since 1992, there has been a conscious effort from the NPP within the constituency in 
educating the electorate that the party is not a southern party but that northerners 
are part of it. Do you think the electorate heeded to this education? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 148 98.7 98.7 98.7 
No 2 1.3 1.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
The perception some electorates have about the NPP in the constituency is that, it is a 
southern or an Akan party. Since 1992, the party has made strenuous efforts to disabuse 
people‟s minds on this perception. Against this background, respondents were asked whether 
the electorates heeded to this continuous education or not.  
 
From table 4.20 only 1.3% indicated that, the electorates did not pay heed to the educational 
messages of the NPP but a huge percentage of 98.7 agreed that indeed the electorate listened 
and understood the import of its educational messages and have put it into action. Ambrose 
and the NPP constituency executives made a lot of efforts to convince their constituents that 
the NPP was for all people. Ambrose Dery used himself as an example to tell his constituents 
that the NPP is a neutral party. President Kufour appointed him as deputy Attorney General in 
the first term of the NPP. Again, he was made Regional Minister of Upper West in the second 
term of the NPP regime. No Ashanti or Southerner was appointed as Upper West Regional 
Minister or DCE for Lawra.  
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Table 4.21 If yes, how? 
 
If yes, how? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid The party keeps improving in its 
performance from election to election. 
92 61.3 61.7 61.7 
Many more people are joining the 
party. 
44 29.3 29.5 91.3 
The popularity of the party is rising. 4 2.7 2.7 94.0 
The electorate can now see the good 
things of the NPP. 
9 6.0 6.0 100.0 
Total 149 99.3 100.0  
Missing NA 1 .7   
Total 150 100.0   
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Since 98.7% agreed that the NPP educational messages were assimilated by the electorates. 
What really is the evidence? 
 
In table 4.21 above, out of 149 respondents, a substantial majority of 61.7% said the party 
keeps improving in its performance from one election to another as their evidence. In 1996 
candidate J. A. Kuffuor of NPP scored 6.7% in the constituency. In 2000 elections, the same 
J. A. Kuffuor scored 10.3%. In 2004 he again improved his score sheet to 30.52% and in 2008 
elections, Nana Akuffo-Addo further improved the score sheet to 42.41% (EC, 2012). This 
improvement in the performance of the NPP is not only limited to the Lawra but even in the 
Volta region which is the “world bank” of the NDC, the NPP improved its performance in the 
2000 elections by hundred percent (100%) in the 2004 general elections (Ayee, 2006 p6). 
 
If the above trend continuous this way, one day the NPP will win the parliamentary seat as 
well as lead in the presidential elections. 29.5% said that since the message of the NPP 
accepted by the people, many more people are joining the party. A small number of 6% and 
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2.7% said that the electorate can now see the development programs of the NPP and the NPP 
popularity is rising respectively. The fact is that the NPP had been in power from 2001 to 
2008 and the constituents could attest to the projects of the party. 
 
Table 4.22 If no, how? 
 
If no, how? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Whatever the NPP does, the 
electorate do not appreciate 
1 .7 100.0 100.0 
Missing NA 149 99.3   
Total 150 100.0   
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
In table 4.22, out of the 150 people interviewed only one person representing 0.7% disagreed 
that the electorates paid heed to the educational messages of the NPP. 
 
Fig 4.5 Bede Ziedeng’s impact on NDC 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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Since 1992 Bede Ziedeng has always been part of the campaign trial of the NDC until in 2008 
when he joined Obed Asamoah and others to form the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP)  of 
which he became the parliamentary candidate in Lawra. The people sampled were 
interviewed whether this did not disadvantage the NDC parliamentary candidate in the 
election. Figure 4.5 above shows that a smaller percentage of 10 agreed that the action of 
Bede Ziedeng disadvantaged Benjamin Kumbuor of the NDC whilst a greater majority of 
90% indicated that the action of Bede Ziedeng, contesting on the ticket of the DFP did not in 
any way affect the fortunes of Benjamin Kunbuor, the then NDC parliamentary candidate in 
the 2008 elections. 
Fig 4.6 If yes, how? 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Those who agreed that the action of Bede Ziedeng contesting on the ticket of the DFP 
disadvantaged the NDC, Parliamentary candidate, were further asked how the action of 
Ziedeng really affected the NDC candidate. The statistics provided in fig 4.6 show that 
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66.67% said Bede Ziedeng drifted away likely votes of Benjamin Kumbuor of the NDC. To 
such respondents if Bede Ziedeng had not contested, most of those who voted for him would 
have voted for the NDC parliamentary candidate. Twenty (20) percent indicated that Bede 
Ziedeng just wanted to bring down the fortunes of the NDC and lastly 13.3% said that the 
usual support Bede Ziedeng would have given to the NDC party was absent. 
 
Fig 4.7 If no, how? 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
On the part of those who said that the action of Bede Ziedeng contesting on the DFP ticket did 
not affect the fortunes of the NDC candidate in Lawra justified their position in figure 
4.7above  Almost half of them 50.4% said that the NDC supporters knew the difference 
between Bede Ziegeng of the DFP and Benjamin Kumbuor of the NDC. In other words NDC 
supporters knew that the DFP is a rebellion party and would not vote for it. But the fact is also 
that since the DFP is a rebelled party, some of the NDC supporters could have also rebelled to 
support it. Again 39.3% also said that votes for Bede Ziedeng could not have been necessary 
votes for Kumbuor. Since the voters are human beings and have preferences, it is possible that 
in the absence of Bede Ziedeng, those who voted for him could have chosen to vote for a 
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different candidate other than Benjamin Kumbuor of the NDC. Further more those voters 
could have decided to abstain from voting. 
Four factors were perceived to have been responsible for the down fall of the NDC 
parliamentary candidate in the 2008 elections. These perceptions were, lack of resources, 
confidence and complacency, the personality of the candidate and his failure to deliver as an 
MP. Respondents were asked whether these perceptions were real and actually affected the 
NDC candidate in election 2008 or they were just imagination and had no effect on the 
performance of the NDC parliamentary candidate in 2008. 
 
Table 4.23 Lack of resources led down  Kumbuor  
 
Did lack of resources lead to the downfall of Kumbuor in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 111 74.0 74.0 74.0 
No 39 26.0 26.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
Table 4.23 shows that 26% of respondents disagreed that Benjamin Kunbuor of the NDC 
lacked resources and that is why he did not win the 2008 parliamentary elections. One 
comment that some of the respondents made was that as a sitting MP, he has access to his 
share of the Common Fund and being an MP since 2001 to 2008 he has acquired enough 
wealth to reach out to his constituents. The respondents agreed that in 2004 he won the seat 
with opposition when he had spent four years in parliament. Whatever the case may be 
elections are held periodically all over the world in democratic countries to either change or 
maintain the incumbent (Brobbey 2009). 
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A whooping majority of 74% however agreed that Benjamin Kunbuor of the NDC lacked 
resources in the 2008 elections and that was why he lost. To such people the argument has 
been that Kumbuor‟s government was not in power as compared to Ambrose Dery whose 
NPP party was in power. As a result Benjamin Kunbuor did not have enough money to buy 
motor-bikes for his “foot soldiers” (Ayee 2006, p.96). In fact voters are courted on the basis 
of your appeal to their heads, hearts and bellies (Nugent, 2007, p.257) but Kunbour could not 
appeal to their bellies.  
 
Some of the party executives argued that since Kunbuor‟s government was not in power he 
was finding it difficult to lobby for more resources and development projects for the 
constituency. A few others think that Benjamin Kunbuor did have resources and gave them 
out but his party executives and campaign managers refused to distribute the resources and 
therefore they did not get to the voters in the communities. This immediately draw to mind the 
issue of giving material things to voters to influence them to vote in a particular direction or 
what is considered as “vote buying”. However, it may also be the case that Benjamin Kunbour 
lost not because of inadequate resources but because he was over confident and complacent 
because the constituency is the stronghold of his NDC party so he did not see the need to 
spend much. This idea is in consonance with Cann and Cole (2001) which hypothesized that 
parties in the US presidential elections tend to spend less in their stronghold than in areas 
where they are weak. 
In fact both the NDC and the NPP are guilty of this practice over the years most especially in 
their primaries where candidates have been alleged to have distributed a plethora of items 
such as mobile phones, pieces of cloth, mini bags of rice, rooting sheets and money to 
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delegates at night. Be as it may, politics is not only about resources because if it were so then 
the NDC would have won the 2000 elections and remain in power (Nugent 2007). 
Table 4.24 Over confidence and complacency led down Kumbuor 
 
Did over confidence and complacency lead to the downfall of Kumbuor in the 2008 
parliamentary elections? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 144 96.0 96.0 96.0 
No 6 4.0 4.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Over confidence and complacency was one of the issues perceived to have caused the defeat 
of Benjamin Kunbuor in the 2008 parliamentary elections. The sampled electorate were 
interviewed whether this did play a role in the downfall of Kunbuor. The responses in table 
4.24 show that a minority of 4% did not agree that Benjamin Kumbuor was over confident 
and complacent when he went into election 2008. Such respondents believe that the man 
Benjamin Kumbuor went into the election with all the serious it deserves. He did all that was 
necessary with the needed seriousness but the efforts were not enough. However, on the other 
hand an overwhelming majority of 96% said that Benjamin Kunbuor went into the race so 
much over confident and complacent. The reasons for their position are not farfetched.  
Firstly, the Lawra constituency is a strong hold of the NDC party of which Benjamin was the 
parliamentary candidate in 2008. Being one of the safe-seats of the NDC Benjamin Kunbuor 
was sure that majority of the electorate in Lawra would be on his side.  
Secondly, since 1992 to 2004 any candidate fielded on the ticket of the NDC won the 
elections and this is evident from the fact that Benjamin Kunbuor himself won the 2000 and 
2004 parliamentary elections in the constituency.  
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Three, the main rival candidate Ambrose Dery was defeated by Benjamin Kunbuor in the 
2004 parliamentary elections with a margin of 58% to Kunbuor and 31% for Dery and for this 
reason Benjamin Kunbuor did not see any threat from the opposition.  
 
Four, Benjamin Kunbuor being an MP for two consecutive terms and was now seeking his 
third term, believed that he was more popular than his major opponent, Ambrose Dery. Also 
being in power for two terms he believed that he has done enough to endear himself to the 
citizens of Lawra and Nandom and has now become their darling man and because of these 
reasons it was alleged that Kunbuor became complacent and would not visit the constituency 
frequently and for this reason, he was not easily available for his constituents to send their 
problems to him for redress.  
 
Kunbuor was also alleged to have constantly turned down invitations to attend functions in 
the constituency, instead he was preoccupied with duties of the party at national head quarters 
as opposed to Ambrose Dery of the NPP who visited the constituency very frequently and 
ensured that he attended all big and small functions organized by the constituents including 
their funerals and this afforded him the opportunity to attend to some of the pressing needs of 
his constituents. It is for this reason that the people of Lawra thought that their MP, in the 
person of Benjamin Kunbuor had neglected them. Benjamin Kunbuor is not only person 
guilty of this but the NDC party as a whole as Ayee (2001 p50) reports that the NDC lost the 
2000 elections to the NPP because of complacency and arrogance. While the NDC was in 
power it behaved as if it did have any challenger in elections and turn down invitations to 
functions where policies of the party could have been explained to the electorates. 
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Table 4.25 Personality led down Kunbuor  
 
Did his personality lead to the downfall of Kunbuor in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections? 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 136 90.7 90.7 90.7 
No 14 9.3 9.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
Table 4.25 shows that a small number of 14 respondents, representing 9.3% did not think that 
the personality of Kunbuor failed him in the 2008 parliamentary elections while a greater 
majority of 90.7% said that in their opinion the personality of Kumbuor played a role in him 
losing the election 2008. No doubt, Benjamin Kumbuor is respected by many in several 
respects. First, from a poor background he has struggled to achieve a Doctorate of Philosophy 
in Law, which shows that he persevered and worked hard. Secondly, he is knowledgeable and 
intelligent and that is why he was lecturing at the Ghana School of Law. Being a onetime civil 
servant he has a lot of experience and above all he is one of the bigwigs of the NDC party. 
 
However when it comes to how Kunbuor relates to his constituents, some people have 
problems with him. Some accused him of raising himself high and this is because of his high 
academic qualification. For this reason he does not like associating himself with the ordinary 
people as compared to Ambrose Dery who has been joining his constituents to drink together 
in a local pito bar or to play games together. More so, others accused Kunbuor of low 
frequency at home to attend their functions and funerals and in view of that it is seen as a sign 
of disrespect and they think that Benjamin Kunbuor is not easily accessible to his constituents. 
Apart from not being frequent at home, he hardly picks calls neither does he return missed 
calls. It takes a longer time to meet Kunbuor face to face and even on such occasion, your 
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request must pass through is junior brother Augustine Kunbuor whom the people think they 
did not vote for to be an intermediary to their member of parliament.  
 
Consequently, some people think that Benjamin Kunbuor is reserved from his people but this 
is normal since human beings are “defined not only by what they are, but also by what they 
are not” (Gosden 1994, p.64). Benjamin Kunbour was also accused of being busy running 
errands for his party and the former president Jerry John Rawlings to the detriment of the 
welfare of his constituents and since according to Debrah (2006, p36) politics is about 
improved conditions of life of the voter and therefore politicians must be accountable to their 
electorates. In summary, the constituents of Lawra felt that, Benjamin Kunbuor was not 
associable and therefore difficult to reach.  
 
Table 4.26 Kunbuor’s failure to deliver  
 
Did his failure to deliver as an MP lead to the downfall of Kumbuor in the 2008 
parliamentary elections? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 123 82.0 82.0 82.0 
No 27 18.0 18.0 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
 
The last issue that was examined in connection with the failure of Benjamin to win the 2008 
election was whether he failed to deliver as a member of parliament. In table 4.26 a minority 
percentage of 18 said no. To this 18% Benjamin Kumbuor did his job effectively as Member 
of Parliament for the area.  
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However, a larger percentage of 82% said that Kumbuor did not win because he performed 
poorly as a member of parliament, an indication that people voted on issues to support the 
claim of Dalton (2002, p.193) that class voting is declining throughout the democratic world 
and of course “those politicians who increase the welfare of their constituents the more, are 
the most likely to be re-elected” (Friedman & Whitman, 1995 p.70). No doubt, some of the 
respondents that the researcher spoke to admitted that Benjamin Kumbuor contribute 
effectively on the floor of parliament and takes part in committee meetings but such 
effectiveness at parliament house does not bring development projects to Lawra and Nandom, 
it does not pay their children‟s school fees and it does not provide solutions to their personal 
problems.  
 
Naturally, voters would reward parties and candidates who have good economic performance 
and punish those who have not (Sanders 1994). They even further argued that Benjamin 
Kumbuor always hide under the guise of being busy at parliament and would not come home 
to listen to their problems. From this one can deduce that the constituents of an area do not 
judge their MP by the core functions that parliament performs such as; law making, protecting 
the public purse and exercising restrain over the executive arm of government. 
 
A good MP “has the opportunity in parliament to draw attention to development in his 
constituency and explore avenues for the socio economic development of the constituency” 
(Alla-Adjetey, 2004 p34) and to attend to the personal needs of his constituents especially by 
paying the school fees of his constituents. In fact these are additional functions that MPs have 
arrogated to themselves and since they are directly related to the daily survival of constituents 
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and the development of the area, they rather attract more attention than the core functions of 
parliament. 
 
Consequently, it is therefore not surprising that when the African Watch Magazine rated some 
MPs low with reference to their core functions in parliament, they were very furious because 
they felt that they had brought enough development to their constituents and had moved even 
a step ahead to solve their personal problems and these projects have endeared them to their 
constituents who hail them as saviours and honourables. 
 
The issues of development and solving the problems of constituents or citizens, are in the 
bosom of who? Are they not part of the core functions of the executive arm of government? If 
the answer to this question is in the affirmative, then parliamentarians performing these 
functions amount to unnecessary usurpation of the functions of the executive and it create 
tension between MPs and District Chief Executives (DCEs). 
 
 
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Fig 4.8 Incumbency of Dery’s government 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Apart from examining the factors that led to the down fall of Benjamin Kunbuor, the study 
also looked at the factors that propelled or created fertile grounds for the NPP parliamentary 
candidate, Ambrose Dery to snatch the seat from the then NDC sitting MP. Six factors were 
perceived to have worked to the advantage of Ambrose Dery which are found below. In figure 
4.8 above, respondents were asked whether incumbency helped Ambrose Dery to win the 
2008 parliamentary elections. 17.33% said no whilst an overwhelming majority of 82.67% 
said that Ambrose Dery‟s party being an incumbent government during the time the elections 
were conducted really helped him much. Ambrose Dery was made a regional minister of 
Upper West by the NPP government from 2004-2007. Being a regional minister he was closer 
to Lawra than the NDC sitting MP who was in Accra. His proximity to his constituency made 
him frequent home very often. Anytime he is going, he uses the official vehicle given to him 
and he is driven by an official driver. As the regional minister and the son of the land, he was 
invited to almost all the functions in Lawra and Nandom since Ambrose Dery knew that in 
2008 he was going to contest, he ensured that he attended almost all these functions. Those 
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that he could not attend in person, he sent delegates. At these functions the regional minister 
made donations on behalf of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) and on behalf of 
government. 
 
Though the donations were not from his personal account, they went a long way to endeared 
him to the people, who saw him as more caring than the then member of parliament. In fact it 
is argued that Ambrose attended almost all funerals even including those of children and 
donations were made to bereaved families. In Dagaare customs and traditions, funerals are 
revered and seen as serious occasions since that is the last most important thing that the living 
can do for their loved departed ones. During funerals it is believed that the bereaved family is 
confused and helpless and therefore those who attend the funerals are there to help them out 
of their needs and troubles. For Ambrose to be patronizing these funerals, the constituents saw 
him as more caring and sensitive to their plight. Again as the Regional Minister he ensured 
that a lot of rural communities benefited from this rural electrification in Lawra District 
especially in Babile area where most of his kinsmen, the Brifuors dominate.  
 
During the piloting of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Lawra was 
chosen, but in reality out of the ten (10) District in the region, when it comes to poverty 
rating, Lawra District would not even be among the first four but he intentionally chose 
Lawra to score political points for 2008. In summary because the NPP was in power and the 
fact that incumbency goes with political largesse, it attracted some NDC sympathizers 
including floating voters into the camp of the NPP candidate, Ambrose Dery. This answers 
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the question of “whether the performance of incumbents is completely unrelated to voting 
behavior of their constituency” (Bharauch, 2003 p550).   
 
Fig 4.9 Personality of Ambrose Dery 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
In addition, in figure 4.9 above, the opinion of respondents were sought as to whether the 
personality of Ambrose Dery provided support for his course of winning the 2008 
parliamentary elections. The responses were clear as a minute percentage of 2 said no, whilst 
an overwhelming majority of 98 said yes. By all standards Ambrose Dery had a good level of 
education like Benjamin Kunbuor. He is a lawyer by profession and makes very intelligent 
arguments in court. He has negotiation and leadership skills and these started showing when 
he was the senior prefect (SP) of Navrongo Secondary School when he was in the sixth form 
at their year. By the Lawra and Nandom standard, Ambrose is well to do even before he 
joined the NPP and even though he joined the party not very long; his contribution to the 
fortunes of the NPP has been phenomenal. These were the sentiments expressed by some 
respondents. But in addition to these, what he is most admired for is his ability to bring 
himself to the level of the ordinary man and easily associate himself with his electorates. He 
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responded to almost all their invitation for occasions and make donations. He comes home to 
sympathize with them during funerals. You do not need an intermediary to see Ambrose 
Dery. His doors are opened for twenty four (24) hours and he is very generous in handling 
people‟s personal problems. With this most electorates thought that they stand the chance of 
benefiting if they make him their representative in parliament. It is against this background 
that Brobbey (2009, p.77) asserted that in Ghana today successful candidate owe less to their 
parties and more to themselves, their campaign organization and to their electorates. But this 
can be expected of politicians who are looking for power and even developed democracies it 
is possible to see a politician bringing himself to the level of the ordinary man in order to win 
elections. In Britain, Margaret Thatcher in her quest to oust James Callaghan as prime 
minister of Britain was seen in a workers‟ white uniform at a toffee factory and on another 
occasion was precariously perched on a fork lift (Oquaye, 1998 p395). 
 
But by and large, Ambrose Dery‟s good campaign message, his down to earth attitude and 
generosity and his good performance in office as a former Upper West Regional minister won 
him the seat (Miroff, B. et al, 1999).  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Fig 4.10 Better campaign strategies of Ambrose Dery 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
In the past, even though campaign messages did not impact so much on elections in the 
constituency, for the 2008 one, it did impact so much especially in favour of Ambrose Dery of 
the NPP as “campaigns have the magic of producing an electoral victory” (Debrah, 2006 
p37). From figure 4.10 above, a huge percentage of 96.67 respondents declared that Ambrose 
Dery won the 2008 parliamentary elections based on his better campaign strategies and 
messages. In terms of strategies, Ambrose Dery started the race before even the whistle was 
blown. As soon as he was made, the Upper West Regional Minister in 2004 and knowing that 
he would contests in the 2008 upcoming parliamentary elections, Ambrose indirectly started 
his campaign. Being in the region, it afforded him the opportunity to get closer to his 
constituents very often. He visited home very frequently and honoured almost all invitations 
for both big and small functions and at such functions handsome donations were made. He 
used his position as the regional minister to ensure that most rural communities in the Lawra 
District benefited from the rural electrification projects and many development projects. This 
built a lot of trust between him and the electorate and for that matter many of them were 
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prepared risk voting for him (Hollander, 1978, p.9).  At the time Ambrose was doing these 
things he did not declare to the community members that he was doing so for votes but as 
soon as Ambrose Dery stood in the 2008 elections, the people were reminded and they 
themselves also remembered of what Ambrose has done for them and this portrayed him a 
good, caring and responsible leader, after all leadership is not only about power but how its 
effect are generally felt more directly by the people (Hollander 1978, p.1) with all these 
Ambrose felt that he deserves to be made the spokesperson of the people of Lawra. Again 
Ambrose adopted a very clever strategy by identifying all those individuals or groups who 
had problems with the sitting member of parliament and he would sit with such people to 
listen to their problems and complains and he would solve their problems for them and 
advised them not to be worried about whatever his cousin as he often referred to the sitting 
MP, has done to them.  
 
Furthermore, the message he would give them was that all the citizens in Lawra and Nandom 
are one people bonded together by geographical, marital and family ties. Politics should not 
divide them and it is on this basis that he felt obliged to help them in situation where one other 
family member could not help. With this he would dismiss such individuals to go home and 
live their lives. Such people would dispersed with a clear mind that Ambrose Dery is not even 
our MP but very supportive and when made the MP, every son and daughter of the land 
would benefit. Such good news was taken to their families and non-family members and that 
won a lot of souls to the camp of Ambrose Dery. This accounted for the vote difference 
between Ambrose Dery and Nana Akuffo-Addo in the elections because they know what they 
stand to benefit from Ambrose as a person. In terms of messages Ambrose Dery was one step 
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different from his colleagues who all focused on development projects. In addition to 
development projects Ambrose singled out women that he would handle them well when he is 
made the MP of the area. He assured them of working out a loan facility for them when he 
comes into power in order to empower them to take care of their children and husbands. To 
him since women are in charge of the kitchen, when a woman is empowered financially then 
the family can not go hungry and this message was accepted well by most women who form 
about 53% of the population of the constituency, after all campaign is about obtaining useful 
data about the electorate – getting appropriate and persuasive messages to them and this 
message should persuade the voter to elect a candidate or not to elect an opposition (Salmore 
and Salmore, 1985 pp9-10). Ambrose campaign messages were considered better because 
campaigning appears to be easier when in opposition than when in power (Boafo-Arthur 
2006, p.2). 
 
 
Fig 4.11 NPP vigorous education 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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In figure 4.11 above, it is clear that only 2.67% representing a negligible minority said that 
vigorous educational campaign from the NPP over the year has not paid off. But an absolute 
majority of 97.33% agreed that, the serious education mounted by the NPP in the constituency 
that the party was for all and not only southerners (Akan) has been heard, understood and 
taken by most constituents. The dominant perception especially at the beginning of the Fourth 
Republic was that the NDC is a home party because it is more sympathetic towards 
Northerners but on the other hand the NPP which came out of the Busia-Danquah-Dombo 
tradition is anti-Northerners. As a result of this negative perception which has impacted 
negatively on the fortunes of the NPP especially in the past, the party saw it necessary to 
disabuse the minds of the citizens of the area that the party is a southern party. This 
educational campaign became necessary based on the fact that “no political party in Ghana 
can win elections through the votes of a single ethnic group” (Boafo-Arthur 2006, p4).  The 
NPP executed this educational campaign with the following examples. First of all in 1954 
when the CPP was the strongest party in Ghana, it was the parliamentary candidate of the 
United Party (UP) in the person of Abaifaa Karbo who won the first parliamentary elections 
ever contested in the constituency and the United Party (UP) is a number of the Busia-
Danquah-Dombo tradition. In addition, prominent northerners such as D.S. Dombo, Imoro 
Igala and Jato Kaleo were members of the Busia-Danquah-Dombo tradition. Furthermore 
when the NPP came into power from 2001 to 2008, all DCEs appointed to the Lawra District 
Assembly came from the land of Lawra, all presiding members came from the constituency. 
No southerner was brought and imposed on them as a leader. When the NPP created LEAP, 
Lawra District got its fair share and when the National Youth Employment Programme 
(NYEP) was launched by the NPP regime, the employees who benefited in the Lawra District 
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were citizens of Lawra and the co-ordinator to the programme is a son of the land. They cited 
a few more development projects to buttress their point and assured the citizens of the area 
that, the NPP was like any other party made up of different people from different background 
and from different geographical locations and therefore transcend Northern-Southern divide. 
In reality some of the electorates have personally benefited from the activities of the NPP in 
the area and can testify to that and that explains the rational behind the party‟s continues 
improvement in performance from one election to another. So 97.33% from figure 4.11 
therefore believe that this education from the party has worked so much to the advantage of 
the NPP parliamentary candidate in the 2008 elections. The common reason is that, when 
Ambrose Dery was Upper West Regional Minister, all the good things he did was for the 
region in general and Lawra Constituency in particular and by deduction, if he is made the 
MP of the area, what is due for the constituents would be brought to them and not to the 
southerners. 
 
Fig 4.12 Rigging  
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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Ambrose Dery of the NPP wining the 2008 parliamentary elections in an NDC stronghold 
was a surprise to many. This study therefore decided to find out whether he won the elections 
genuinely or he rigged since his government was in power when the elections were 
conducted. The responses from figure 4.12 above show that a very small percentage of 1.33 
said that, Ambrose Dery rigged the election 2008 and that is why he won but a colossal figure 
of 98.67% said that, Ambrose Dery did not rig the elections, which means that he won the 
contest on free and fair grounds. 
Table 4.27 Rating of 2008 elections in Lawra? 
 
How would you rate the 2008 parliamentary elections conducted by the EC in Lawra? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Free, fair and transparent 148 98.7 98.7 98.7 
Rigged 2 1.3 1.3 100.0 
Total 150 100.0 100.0  
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
In table 4.27, the study sort to find out how the 2008 parliamentary elections went in general 
and the responses displayed show that only two (2) people out of 150 representing 1.3% said 
the elections were rigged while on the other hand, a larger majority of 98.7% said that, the 
2008 parliamentary elections that were organized in the Lawra area by the Electoral 
Commission (EC) was free, fair and transparent, since the electorates were given the freedom 
which “is understood as the overall absence of constraints” (Mappies & Zembaty 1992, p.346) 
to vote for whoever they wanted . In reality the effectiveness of the EC to organize credible 
elections in Ghana under the Fourth Republic is in no doubt despite some few challenges 
(Gyimah-Boadi, 1999). It therefore came as no surprise when the electorate rated the 2008 
parliamentary elections as in Lawra as generally free and fair. 
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Table 4.28 Transparency of 2008 elections 
 
If free, fair and transparent, in what way was it free, fair and transparent? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid There was no report of rigging 90 60.0 60.8 60.8 
There was rumour of rigging but 
could not be substantiated 
17 11.3 11.5 72.3 
Throughout the constituency, there 
was no report of harassment on the 
part of voters and EC officials 
41 27.3 27.7 100.0 
Total 148 98.7 100.0  
Missing NA 2 1.3   
Total 150 100.0   
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
To those who said that the 2008 parliamentary elections in Lawra were free and fair, they 
were further asked in what way do they think it was free, fair and transparent. In table 4.28 a 
large percentage of 60.8 said the elections were free and fair based on the fact that there was 
no report of rigging on their side. 27.7% confirmed that throughout the constituency there was 
no report of harassment on the part of voters and EC officials and since they did not hear of 
anything untoward on the EC officials and voters, then the elections were free, fair and 
transparent. A minority group of 11.5% said that, they heard of rumour of rigging but no one 
could authenticate such rumours. 
Table 4.29 Rigged, for which candidate? 
 
If rigged, how was it rigged and for which candidate? 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Votes from the party agents were 
different from the EC's own and it 
was rigged in favour of Ambrose 
Dery. 
1 .7 50.0 50.0 
In Babile, we are told people voted 
twice for Ambrose Dery. 
1 .7 50.0 100.0 
Total 2 1.3 100.0  
Missing NA 148 98.7   
Total 150 100.0   
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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For those who hold the view that the elections were rigged, they were further asked to explain 
how they think it was rigged and for which candidate. From table 4.29 only two people said 
the elections were rigged. One of them said that the votes from the NDC party agents were 
different from the EC‟s own and that, it was rigged in favour of Ambrose Dery. The second 
person opined they were told that in Babile people voted twice for Ambrose Dery. Be as it 
may, this is not surprising because in Africa especially from the 1960s onwards there were “as 
many disputed election results as there were clear cut victories”(Nugent 2007,p.253).  
 
4.8 LESSONS THAT CAN BE LEARNT 
Apart from establishing the fact that, there was a change in voting pattern, the study also aims 
at finding out the possible lessons that politicians, political parties and the general public may 
draw from the change in voting pattern. 
 
Fig 4.13 Opposition winning in an incumbent stronghold. 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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A sitting NDC MP in his own stronghold lost to the opposition candidate in the 2008 
parliamentary elections. One of the possible lessons that politicians, political parties and the 
general public can learn from this is that it may be difficult but possible for an opposition to 
win elections in an area which is not its stronghold. When the opinions of respondents were 
sought on this, an overwhelming majority of 97.33% in figure 4.13 above totally agreed. After 
all it took the NPP over 16 years to unseat the NDC from the parliamentary seat in Lawra. No 
matter how long it may take it is possible for an opposition to unseat stronghold candidate 
especially when the people realize that, their favoured cannot help then, they would turn to 
vote for the opposition. This indicates that democracy is getting consolidated since it is the 
best form of government that is tried and tested in the world (Brobbey 2009, p.76). The idea 
of voting for an opposition instead of a preferred party candidate who cannot help is rational 
since according to Bluwey (1998, p.342) it will be irrational for voters to base their choice on 
habits without periodically examining the objectives between personal preferences and the 
choices that are offered to them. 
 
Fig 4.14.  Over confidence and complacency 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
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Over confidence and complacency was one of the factors said to have brought down the 
sitting MP in the 2008 elections. In figure 4.14 above, one of the lessons that politicians can 
learn is that, no one should be over confident and complacent when going in for an electoral 
contest, because elections deal with human beings whose behavior are subject to change with 
time. From this Benjamin Kumbuor, the general public and future politicians should learn 
from this and should not be over confident and complacent when contesting for a position, no 
matter how well placed you may be. From figure 4.14, 66.67% supported the above expressed 
view while 33.33% think that, the above expressed view was not a lesson enough for 
politicians and the general public to learn. In fact this is really a lesson for everybody to learn 
since the NDC as a party in 2000 was overconfident and arrogant because of its incumbency 
and subsequently lost the election (Ayee, 2001).  
 
 
Table 4.30 Power belongs to the electorates 
 
In the 2008 parliamentary elections, a sitting MP lost to an opposition candidate in the 
NDC strong hold. Would you say power belongs to the electorate and not leaders? 
 
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent 
Valid Yes 150 100.0 100.0 100.0 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
From table 4.30 above, all the 150 people sampled agreed that one of the biggest lessons that 
politicians and the general public can learn from this change in voting behavior is that power 
belongs to the electorate and not leaders. If power were to belong to leaders, then Benjamin 
Kunbuor, a sitting MP would have used his power to get back to parliament, but because 
power belongs to the people, they decided that this time they wanted Ambrose Dery to 
represent them in parliament and not Kumbuor anymore. This lesson is in consonance with 
the view of  John Locke who argued that individual citizens gave out their rights to the state 
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in return for protection and these rights are exercised on behalf of the people by government 
(Lastlett 1960, pp.93-109) and therefore, power emanates from the people. This is also in 
agreement with paragraph three (3) of article twenty-one (2) of the UN 1948 Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights which says that the “will of the people shall be the basis of 
authority of government” and that this will shall be expressed in periodic genuine elections 
(Kumado, 1996) and also the preamble of the 1992 constitution says that all powers of 
government spring from the sovereign will of the people and such power belongs to the 
people (Preamble of 1992 Constitution).    
Fig 4.15 Maturity of the Ghanaian Voter 
 
Source: Field Survey, 2012 
Lastly, from figure 4.15 above a substantive percentage of 81.33% think that the voter in 
Lawra is matured and votes on issues and not on party lines, looking at how the 2008 
parliamentary elections went. Lawra is no doubt the stronghold of the NDC but when the 
electorates felt, Ambrose could help them more than Benjamin Kumbuor, they went ahead to 
vote for him though he is in the opposition. In Ghana, two incumbent governments so far have 
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been voted out of power since the beginning of the Fourth Republic and there are instances of 
“skirt” and “blouse” voting in some constituents in recent times (Boafo-Arthur 2006, p.177). 
In 2000, the NDC was in power but lost both the Akan and Anlo seats to independent 
candidates in its “world Bank”, the Volta region (Ayee, 2001).  All these show that most 
Ghanaian voters are getting matured and are not just blind loyalist and habitualist (Bluwey 
1998) and would therefore vote for the politician who can increase his/her welfare the more 
(Friedman and Wittman, 1995). However, there are still instances where people vote purely 
on party lines no matter the situation based on pre-existing believes (Brobbey, 2009).  
4.9 CONCLUSION 
From the analysis above it is clear that the electorate of Lawra Constituency in the 2008 
parliamentary elections did change their voting behavior of always endorsing the NDC 
parliamentary candidates to go to parliament. This time they decided to endorse the 
opposition NPP candidate to also take over for the first time in an election that an absolute 
majority agreed was free and fair. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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38.  Debrah, E. (2006). Election 2004 and the politics of Upper West Akim and New 
Juabeng constituencies in Boafo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in 
Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective Vol II freedom publications, 
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Constituencies in Kwame Boafo-Arthur (ed) Voting for Democracy in 
Ghana: The 2004 elections in perspective vol II, Freedom Publications, 
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Policcy, Mc Graw-Hill Companies Inc. New York.  
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43. Lastlette, P. (1960) (ed) John Locke: Two Treaties of Government. Cambridge 
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Foundation, Ghana 
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CHAPTER FIVE 
SUMMARY, LESSONS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
5.1 INTRODUCTION 
This study sets out to examine the factors that led to a change in the voter behaviour of the 
constituents of Lawra in the 2008 parliamentary elections. It critically assessed how a 
majority of electorate in Lawra have been voting for the NDC to win the parliamentary 
elections since the inception of the fourth Republic. The same electorates changed their voter 
attitude in the 2008 parliamentary elections by voting against the NDC but in favour of the 
NPP parliamentary candidate, who unseated the NDC incumbent MP. 
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 
The main thesis of this study is that the change in voter behaviour that occurred in the Lawra 
constituency in the 2008 parliamentary elections was due to the over confidence and 
complacent attitude of the incumbent NDC MP. He felt that since the constituency was the 
strong hold of his party he was going to win the elections at all cost and as a result he did not 
take his campaign seriously. More importantly, he did not make himself available for his 
constituents to bring their problems for redress. Based on these reasons above, the Lawra 
constituents felt that their member of parliament had neglected them and therefore, instead of 
majority of the electorate voting for him, they decided to vote for the parliamentary candidate 
of the opposition New Patriotic Party in the person of Ambrose Dery. Ambrose is perceived 
to have pursuit serious and better campaign strategies than his main opponent. 
Belonging to the incumbent government and also being the Regional Minister for Upper West 
from 2005-2007, he had access to resources and opportunities that enabled him send 
development projects to the constituency and also distributed political largesse to his 
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constituents. All these endeared the NPP parliamentary candidate to majority of his 
constituents. They therefore decided to vote him in to office to replace the NDC incumbent 
MP.  
This interesting study was premised on the hypothesis that, popularity of a party and 
candidate incumbency are sufficient to win elections in Lawra constituency. This hypothesis 
is rejected by the study in that, the NDC is popular and their parliamentary candidate was 
incumbent but they lost the 2008 parliamentary elections to the opposition NPP. 
This research was also based on the rational choice theory propounded by Downs (1957) and 
the voter led theory espoused by Rose & McAllister (1990). The main summaries of these two 
theories are that; 
1. The voter is rational and would therefore examine his/her options very well before 
making a choice that will yield him/her the highest satisfaction. 
2. The voter is supreme since he/she determines which party or candidate wins elections 
and being rational he/she will vote for the party/candidate which best approximate 
his/her expectations. 
The people of Lawra changed their voting pattern in the 2008 elections by voting for Ambrose 
Dery instead of the incumbent MP, Benjamin Kunbuor when they realized that Ambrose Dery 
was more promising and development oriented than Kunbuor. By this, Ambrose Dery won the 
parliamentary seat. This is a rational way of voting and it was the electorates who made 
Ambrose Dery a winner by their votes.  In this way these two theories best explained the 
study.  
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The methodology adopted by the study was qualitative and quantitative. The method used was 
a survey where 150 respondents were sampled and interviewed and after analysis of the 
survey results, the main findings were as follows:  
To understand better, the change in voter behaviour that occurred in Lawra in the 2008 
parliamentary elections, one fact must be established. That the issue of Lawra constituency b 
eing one of the strong holds of the NDC is not questionable. This is amply demonstrated by 
the fact that the party had won four successive parliamentary elections since the inception of 
the fourth Republic. However, in the 2008 parliamentary elections, the electorates changed 
this voting pattern by voting for the opposition NPP parliamentary candidate to unseat the 
NDC from the seat she had dominated for sixteen good years. The following reasons explain 
the sudden change in the voting behaviour of the Lawra constituents. 
First and foremost the NDC incumbent MP is said to have failed to deliver developments to 
the expectation of his constituents. According to some of the electorates interviewed, they 
claim that since the incumbent NDC MP assumed office, he could neither boast of a single 
kilometer tarred road nor a physical structure in the form of schools and hospitals. Again the 
electorates did not perceive development only in physical terms but also in human 
advancement. In this regard, many people blamed the incumbent MP for failing to pay for the 
school fees of their wards in schools. Being a rural constituency, it is largely believed that 
education was the only viable tool that can bring the people of the constituency out of the 
bondage of poverty. 
On the other hand, the parliamentary candidate of the NPP used his good office as a 
Regional Minister to lobby for a number of development projects for the constituency 
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namely; the rural electrification project, the health assistant training school at Lawra, 
the LEAP project that was piloted in Lawra and many others. In addition, the NPP 
parliamentary candidate assisted some of the constituents to pay for their wards fees 
and even bought grains for some of them during the planting season. All these made 
majority of the electorates to think that the NPP parliamentary candidate was more 
developmental oriented than the NDC incumbent MP. Hence they changed their 
voting pattern by voting for the NPP parliamentary candidate. This confirms Down‟s 
rational choice paradigm which states that voters do not look at parties per se and vote 
but that, voters look at the government look at the government that was incumbent at 
election time to see what the government will provide them in terms of utility if it 
stays in power.   
Secondly the NDC incumbent Mp was over confident and complacent towards the 2008 
Parliamentary elections as compared to his main rival NPP Candidate. The NDC Candidate 
was so sure that he will win the 2008 Parliamentary elections and for that matter he did not 
take his campaign seriously to reach out to the electorate. Some of the constituency NDC 
executives blaimed the mp for releasing scanty resources into the Campaign activities which 
started rather too late, while other executives thought that the mp did not have enough 
resources for the Campaign because his government was not in power. 
Again the incumbent mp failed to attend most of the events that were organized in his 
constituency. Infarct, these events or occasions were good platforms for him. Unfortunately 
he turned down such invitations with the reason that he had been busy with party and 
parliamentary business in Accra. All these made the electorate feel that they had been taken 
for granted. What even annoyed most of the electorate was the tacit admission of the 
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incumbent mp during his campaign tour that, he had not done enough for them. His reason for 
the failure was simple; that his government was not in power and for that matter, it was not 
easy to lobby for development projects for them. For this reason the electorate felt that it was 
better to vote for the opposition NPP Candidate since his government was in power to lobby 
for more development project for them. 
As compared to the incumbent NDC mp, the main opposition NPP Parliamentary Candidate 
pursued serious and better Campaign strategies. First of all, he took his campaign seriously by 
starting as early as 2005, when he was made the upper west- Regional minister. He visited 
Lawra very frequently to interact with the constituents. He attended almost all occasions  that 
he was invited to attend. Those that he could not attend in person, he sent delegations with 
donations. Even though these functions were not party rallies, the NPP Parliamentary 
Candidate used them to campaign. During his Campaign tours, he pointed to the development 
project of the NPP government and asked the electorate to vote him into power to continue to 
bring more development to them. 
In addition, in terms of Campaign strategies the NPP Candidate was a head of the of the NDC 
incumbent mp. This is because apart from using foot soldiers and organizing rallies, which the 
incumbent mp also did, the NPP Candidate in the person of Ambrose Derry, went beyond the 
use of rallies and foot soldiers. He consciously identified all NDC members and non-NDC 
members who have had problems with the incumbent mp and jaw-jawed with them by 
attending to their personal needs. He went further to admonish such people to put whatever 
problem they had with the incumbent mp behind them, so that they can live together in peace. 
He reiterated the idea that they were one people bonded together by marriage, religious and 
tribal ties and for that matter they should not allow politics to divide them. In fact this was a 
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very clever way of winning such people into the Camp of the NPP Candidate, who later 
became apostles, winning souls for Ambrose Derry instead of Benjamin Kunbuor. 
In addition to the above, the NPP Candidate pointed out to the electorate during his campaign 
tours that, the NPP was a universal party and not a southern party as was perceived by some 
constituents. He used himself as an example to show that, the NPP was a neutral party. He 
indicated that he was made a Deputy Attorney General during the first term of President John. 
A. Kuffour‟s administration and again, during the second term of the NPP under president 
John A Kuffour , he Ambrose Derry was once again appointed upper west Regional Minister. 
He pointed to the DCE of the area, the National youth Employment Programme (NYEP) Co-
Coordinator. The National Health Insurance Scheme manager as people who hailed from the 
constituency. No southerner was brought to impose on them. All these better campaign 
strategies inured to the benefit of the NPP Parliamentary Candidate, hence his victory in the 
2008 parliamentary elections over the NDC Candidate. 
Again, the huge incumbency advantage that the NPP Candidate had over the NDC 
parliamentary Candidate contributed substantially to the change in voter behavior in the 
Lawra constituency. With the NPP government being in power and especially with NPP 
Candidate as the then upper west Regional minister, put him ahead of his main rival NDC 
parliamentary Candidate in terms of resources to reach out to the Lawra constituents. As a 
regional minister he campaigned with state resources and was able to distribute political 
largesse and attended to the needs of his constituents more than the NDC Candidate, whose 
government was out of power by then. The mere fact that majority of people had their needs 
settled by the NPP parliamentary candidate, attracted more voters to his side than the NDC 
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Candidate. It must however be noted that, it is not only the NPP that is guilty of this 
incumbency advantage but the NDC as well (Debrah 2006). 
More importantly the human relations of the NDC parliamentary Candidate as against that of 
the NDC was another major factor that contributed to the changed in the pattern of voting in 
the Lawra constituency. About 95% of the electorate interviewed agreed that the NPP 
Parliamentary Candidate had very good human relations. Their reasons have been that he 
easily avails himself for all occasions, including funerals in the constituency; he joins them to 
drink pito at the local pito bar. His doors were always opened for all irrespective of your 
political affiliation and you do not need to book an appointment before you can meet him. In 
other words he is humble and easily accessible as compared to the NDC parliamentary 
Candidate who hardly attends function in the constituency. He is also reported to be 
somebody who does not easily pick up calls, neither does he easily return missed calls. 
In addition, before you can meet him face to face, you must book an appointment through his 
junior brother Augustine Kunbuor, who serves as an intermediary between the electorate and 
the mp. Comparing the two personalities, the Constituents felt that, the NPP parliamentary 
candidate would be more accessible to them to attend to their needs more than the NDC 
incumbent Mp, hence they decided to vote massively for the NPP Candidate to win the 2008 
elections. This is really in conformity with the idea expressed by Brobbey (2009) that, during 
elections time, politicians behave like fathers and tend to be more sympathetic towards 
everybody and as a result, purchase the votes of their constituents.  
Again contrary to the popular expectation that Bede Ziedeng, the parliamentary candidate for 
the DFP caused the down fall of the NDC contestant in the 2008 elections was not entirely 
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164 
 
true. This is because only 10% of respondents agreed that Bede Ziedeng splited the fortunes 
of the NDC in the 2008 elections, while an overwhelming majority of 90% said that the Bede 
Ziedeng saga did not have any effect on the performance of Benjamin Kumbuor, after all 
supporters of the NDC knew the difference between the two candidates and there was no 
guarantee that if Ziedeng had not stood, those who voted for him would have voted for the 
NDC candidate. 
It is also clear from the survey that both the NDC and the NPP made used of incumbency 
whenever it was their turn not only in the Lawra but nationwide since the restoration of multi-
party democracy under the Forth Republic (Drah 2006 ; Ahiawordor 2001; Alla-Mensah 
1998). 
 
5.3 LESSONS THAT CAN BE LEARNT 
From the change of voting behavior that occurred in the Lawra constituency, the following 
lessons can be drawned 
 No matter how long it may take or how difficult it may be, it is possible for an 
opposition to win elections in a constituency which is not its stronghold. 
 No party/Candidate should ever be over confident or complacent and take the voters 
for granted when going in for an electoral competition in their stronghold. This is 
because; voters are human being, whose behavior can easily change within the twincle 
of an eye. 
 The change from the NDC to the NPP in terms of voting in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections by the electorate of Lawra is an indication that, the Lawra voter and by 
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165 
 
extension the Ghanaian voter is getting matured and would therefore vote on issues 
that would improve his life instead of just on partly lines. 
 
5.4 CONCLUSION 
From the findings, we can conclude that, indeed, there was a changed in voter behavior in the 
2008 parliamentary election in Lawra. This change in the voting pattern was precipitated by 
the failure of the NDC sitting mp to deliver development to and neglect of his constituents as 
against his main rival NPP parliamentary Candidate, who was able to lure majority of voters 
to his side by the use of incumbency advantage and better campaign strategies. 
 
5.5  RECOMMENDATIONS 
 From the research a lot of issues emerged which will need some recommendations and it 
is the hope of this study that the under listed recommendations would be noticed. They 
include the following: 
5.5.1 For Policy Makers   
 It is recommended for policy makers that some measures should be put in 
place to check incumbency. This is because incumbency advantage makes the 
electoral arena uneven as there is always a resource gap between incumbent 
parties and opposition. In order to bridge this gap the state should solely be 
responsible for funding political parties‟ activities and audit them to ensure that 
they spend within the amount given by the state. 
 The Electoral Commission should put in place an Agency or a Commission 
with the powers of a high court and independent of government control for 
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ensuring that political parties do not abuse incumbency and those who flout the 
rules should be punished legally.  
5.5.2 For the NPP  
 
It is also recommended to Ambrose Dery, the incumbent MP of the 
constituency to redeem his campaign pledges fully. In addition he should still 
continue in his ever readiness to be with his constituents during their public 
functions to enable him listen to their problems since that was one of the major 
issues that endeared him to the electorates in 2008 but went against Benjamin 
Kunbuor  of the NDC. It is by implementing these recommendations that the 
NPP can retain the seat since the area still remains an NDC stronghold. 
   
5.5.3 For the NDC 
 
Lastly, it is also recommended for Benjamin Kunbuor and the NDC party as a 
whole that no one should be over confident and complacent when going for and 
electoral contest even when it is in your stronghold. This is because elections 
involve human beings whose behaviour is subject to change with time. 
 
 
 
 
 
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NEWS PAPER(S) 
Gati,K.Volta Chiefs pledge support for Mills(Ghanaian Times,Thursday 21,2012 p.11) 
 
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http/www.princetonedu/bartels/electoral behsviour.pdf. Access on 07/02/2012. 
Lago, I. and Coma, F. M.  (2010), Three Decades of Elections in Spain: The causal chain of 
voting Behaviour available at www.upf.educ/grcp/pdf/documents/2010/ three 
decades of elections in Spain pdf assessed on 28/02/12. 
 
INTERVIEWS 
Interview with B.B. Suuriwe, 2011 
Interview  with Hafiz Bin-Salih, 2011 
Interview with the  District Planning Officer, 2011. 
Interview with the Administrator of Lawra MP‟s Office (2012). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX A 
 
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA 
 
QUESTIONNAIRE 
TOPIC: EXPLAINING CHANGE IN VOTER BEHAVIOUR: A STUDY OF THE 
LAWRA CONSTITUENCY IN THE 2008 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN 
GHANA. 
Introduction: Dear respondent, this is an independent academic research which has been 
initiated, designed and being executed by Mr. Mathew L. Arah in partial fulfillment for the 
award of a Master of Philosophy Degree in Political Science. The subject of the research is to 
explain the change in voter behavior that occurred in the Lawra constituency in the 2008 
parliamentary elections. The research is not meant to collect information for government or 
anybody or political party instead it is meant for only academic purposes and as such any 
information you provide would be strictly held confidentially for that purpose. You are 
humbly advised not to give your name. 
Name of interviewer:……………………………………………… Q No.:…………………… 
SECTION A:  BIO-DATA 
1. Gender 
          1         Male   2.       Female 
2. Age 1.     25 – 34    2.    35 – 44  3.     45 – 54  4 .      55 and 
above 
3. Marital status   1.      Married   2.       Single   3.       Widowed   4.       Divorce 
4.  Educational level        1.     Primary-JSS   2.      secondary    3.      Tertiary 4.     
none 
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5.   Religion           1.      Christian      2.      Muslim 3.      Traditionalist   4.      Other 
6. Occupation 1.      Student         2       Civil/public servant 3.      Farming/fishing  
 3.       Businessman/woman     5.       unemployed 
7. Electoral area…………………………………………………… 
SECTION B – FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CHOICE OF ELECTORATES IN 
ELECTIONS 
8. When voting for a candidate, which one of the following will you consider first and 
most important? 1. personality       2.development issues        3. personal 
material gains  4.the party he/she belongs      5.        other 
specify……………………. 
 
FACTORS THAT AIDED NDC IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS FROM 
1992-2004 
9. From 1992 to 2004, the NDC parliamentary candidates (Kunfaa, Bundong and 
Kumbuor) won all the parliamentary elections that were organized. Did the underlisted 
factors work to their advantage? 
i. The NDC is more popular than other parties   1. Yes  2. No 
ii. The Rawlings factor in the NDC whom many liked and admire as a father and 
a savior  1. Yes  2. No 
iii. The NDC as home party  1. Yes   2. No 
iv. Incumbency  1. Yes  2. No 
v. Dev‟t oriented than other parties  1. Yes   2. No 
vi. Presented popular candidates  1. Yes   2. No 
 
VOTING PATTERN IN 2004 AND 2008 PARLIAMENTARY 
ELECTIONS 
10. Which parliamentary candidate did you vote for in the 2004 parliamentary elections? 
1.      Bapullu Dennis Dery   (PNC) 
2     Ambrose Dery   (NPP) 
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3     Benjamin Kumbuor  (NDC) 
4     Seidu Adams Billa  (CPP) 
11. Why did you vote for the candidate in question 10? 
1.      Development oriented and ability to deliver   
2.      Because of his personality 
3.      Better campaign strategies and messages 
4.      Because of the party he belongs to  
5.      Other specify………………………… 
 
12. Which parliamentary candidate did you vote for in the 2008 parliamentary elections? 
1.       Fatchu Henry   (PNC)       4.        Dabuo Wilson 
2.      Ambrose Dery  (NPP)        5.       Ngmenkye  Yelvelle (DPP) 
3.      Benjamin Kunbuor  (NDC)       6.        Bede Ziedeng  (DFP) 
13. Why did you vote for the candidate in question 12? 
1.        Development oriented and ability to deliver 
2.        Because of his personality 
3.        Better campaign strategies and messages 
4.        Because of the party he belongs to 
5.       Other specify………………… 
 
FACTORS THAT LED TO THE CHANGE IN VOTING PATTERN 
14. Which of the following candidates made use of incumbency most during the 2008 
parliamentary elections? 1. Benjamin Kunbuor  2. Ambrose Dery 
15. Did this incumbency help your choice in question 14 win the elections in 2008? 
1. Yes  2. No 
16.  Since 1992, there has been a conscious effort from the NPP within the constituency in 
educating the electorate that, the party is not a southern party but that northerners are 
part of it. Do you think the electorates heeded to this education?  1.     Yes      2 .     
No 
17. If yes, how? 
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1 )  The party keeps improving in its performance from election to election. 
2       Many more people are joining the party 
3.       The popularity of the party is rising 
4.      The electorates can now see the good things of the NPP  
5.      Other specify…………………………….. 
           18. If no, how? 
1.      The party performance in elections keeps falling 
2.      Membership to the party keeps dwindling  
3.      No one wants to hear of the NPP 
4.      Whatever the NPP does the electorates do not appreciate 
5.         Other specify……………………… 
19. Has the action of Bede Ziedeng a known NDC man standing as a candidate on the 
ticket of the DFP disadvantaged the NDC parliamentary candidate in the 2008 election. 
1.     Yes  2. No 
20. If yes how? 
1.      Bede pooled away some of the votes for Kumbuor 
2      The usual support he would have given to the party in terms of campaign was 
absent 
3.     Supporters of Bede were angry with NDC 
4.     Bede wanted to intentionally bring down the fortunes of the NDC. 
5.     Other specify……………………………………………………. 
 21.      If no how? 
1.    Votes for Bede would not have been necessary votes for Kumbuor 
2.     Bede could not pool crowd during his campaign 
3.     NDC supporters knew the deference between Bede Ziedeng and Benjamin    
Kumbuor 
4.      Only floating voters voted for Bede Ziedeng 
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5.      Other specify…………………………………………….. 
22. Did the following factors lead to the down fall of Kumbuor in the 2008 parliamentary 
elections? 
i. Lack of resources to campaign   1.  Yes  2. No 
ii. Over confidence and complacency   1.  Yes  2. No 
iii. His personality    1.  Yes  2. No 
iv. Failure to deliver as an MP   1.  Yes   2.  No 
23. In your opinion would you say the following factors aided Ambrose Dery to win the 
2008 parliamentary elections?  
i. Incumbency     1. Yes  2.  No 
ii. His personality    1. Yes  2.  No 
iii. Better campaign strategies and messages  1.  Yes  2.  No 
iv. Vigorous education from the NPP  1. Yes  2.  No 
v. Rigging      1.  Yes  2.  No 
24.  How would you rate the 2008 parliamentary elections conducted by the EC in Lawra-
Nandom? 
1.      Free fair and transparent     2.       Rigged 
        25. If free, fair and transparent, in what way was it free, fair and transparent 
1.         there was no report of rigging 
2.         there was rumour of rigging but could not be substantiated  
3.       through out the constituency there was no report of harassment on the party of 
voters and EC officials. 
4.       Other specify………………………………………………………………….. 
      26. If rigged, how was it rigged and for which candidate………………………………….. 
  
 
 
 
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LESSONS TO BE LEARNT  
27 In the 2008 parliamentary elections, a sitting MP lost to an opposition candidate in the 
NDC strong hold, what lessons can politicians and political parties learn from this? 
  It may be difficult but possible for an opposition to win elections in an area which is 
not its strong hold.    1.        Yes                  2.      No 
           ii Don‟t be over confident and complacent when going into an electoral context.                                                                  
1.    Yes                        2.       No                
            iii   Power belongs to the electorate and not leaders (MPs)     1.      Yes          2.       No 
iv.The Ghanaian voter now is matured and vote on issues rather than on party basis 
1.     Yes                    2.        No 
 
Thank you for answering all the questions 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX B 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX C 
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