Ghana's democracy, a showpiece for Africa

Accra, May 15, GNA - Ghana's transition and electoral processes were on Monday praised as a showpiece for democratic governance in the sub-region.

Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Nigeria, who made the commendation, asked other states in the Sub-region to learn from Ghana's processes.

He said the institution of a credible Electoral Commission, compilation of a credible Voters Register with registered voters possessing photo embossed ID cards, the presence of an Inter- Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), the acceptance of the role of party agents as monitors for their various parties and the acceptance of the role of the international electoral bservers to ensure a free and fair elections were all examples that needed to copied.

Mr. Ibrahim was speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop on "Post -Conflict Elections in West Africa: Challenges for Democracy and Reconstruction," organized by the Nordic Africa Institute, a Swedish based institute mandated to undertake scientific research in Africa.

Mr. Ibrahim admitted that Ghana did not achieve this process and success on a silver platter, but it was through the collaboration of the government in power at any point in time and the opposition.

There was also the intensification of media advocacy for transparency and accountability on the part of the incumbent party.

Mr. Ibrahim said unlike Ghana's case, most elections within the sub-region had not given the people the opportunity for choices, but rather an opportunity to entrench the positions of people already in power.

"This is what we are advocating against as democratic institutions, because we wish that citizens within the sub-region would use elections to make choices of putting into office, people that they desired and not as a process of entrenching power on the part of incumbents," he said.

Mr. Ibrahim said the last decade had seen a lot of conflicts in the region and it was time that peace was given a chance through the institution of elections, which were key events and a critical part of the political processes in the transition from conflict to peace.

He also cautioned incumbent governments against perceiving the opposition parties as enemies, saying when the opposition party members were treated as enemies; the situation often escalated into conflicts.

"Power has to be shared and each team plays its role effectively, because democracy has no room for authoritarianism," he said.

Mr. John K. Langlay, Deputy Chairman, National Electoral Commission, Liberia said although Liberia had a clean election in 2005, it still had a lot to learn from countries already enjoying democratic governance such as Ghana.

He said Elections almost always becomes the last point for the international community at ensuring peace building, but this was not always the case learning from the mistakes of the Charles Taylor's regime.

"At times elections are part of processes, if unplanned, rushed or mismanaged, would only lead to temporary relief, before regression into violent conflicts," he said.

Mr. Langlay said democracy was about providing citizens with a better life and that is what Africans were craving for because they want leaders who would help them come out of poverty.

He was thankful to investors who had started flocking in to Liberia, saying "we believe that with our young democracy we can take our people out of the poverty that they find themselves today due to the long period of war".

Mr Cyril Obi, Programmes Co-ordinator, The Nordic African Institute, said it was important that countries within the sub-region moved out of conflict situations and take issues of elections more seriously since it provided citizens with the opportunity for a better life.

"Democracy is about the welfare of the people," he said. Ms Carin Norberg, Director, the Nordic Africa Institute said the conference was directed at the critical analysis of elections, since the conduct of elections and their outcomes were critical to democratic rule.