The Beauty of Democracy

Democracy is defined by Abraham Lincon as, Government of the people, by the people and for the people. I also remember the definition of Democracy in my basic school as, the process whereby the wishes of the people are taken into account. From the two definitions stated, there are 4 major words that need to be looked up when analyzing democracy namely; people, wishes, government and accounts /consideration. Democracy comes with it’s elements and election is a major driven element in democracy. Apart from democracy, there are also types of governance which includes Autocracy and Liaise fairer and I must say that Ghana as a country has made the best choice in choosing democracy, kudos Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, the Big Six and all our former presidents for blazing the trail.

Democracy has given every individual the legitimate right to express his/her resentments, grievances and opinions without any suppress or fear of intimidation. This part of democracy was conspicuous in the election 2012. Before and after the election, many politics of insults were all over the waves, and I recall one presidential candidate referring to the government as visionless and incompetent where as the former also receives a rebutter as “visionless and belligerent braggart’’ . This insults pounds on each other close to the election, created a lot of tension in the country. However, this could not precipitate the distraction of peace. Even when all hope was lost in the declaration of the results, Ghanaians remembered the covenant they have with democracy and hence paved way for peace to rein. The most recent bone of contention is the court case. The constitution has stated vividly in Article64 that, in case one is not satisfied with election results, redress can be sought in the Supreme Court for justice to prevail. In light of this that, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Part Nana Akuffo Addo, the chairman of the party Mr.Obetsebi Lampty and the Vice presidential candidate Dr.Mamudu Bawumia filed a petition to the supreme court against the elected president Mahama as illegitimate president and to the electoral commission for rigging the election in favour of pres.John Mahama. When this case came to public notice, many Ghanaians were surprised as to how the NPP sent the case to court even when the election results have been declared. A couple of interviews were made by some media stations and it was ascertained that many Ghanaians were ignorant about that section of the constitution that state the rights of every voter to seek redress of election results at the supreme court when the need arises’’. Yes that is one disadvantage of our constitution as far as democracy is concern, it is contextually voluminous.

One day we wake up and found out that the NDC party has also filed to join the court case. According to the party, they reiterated that president Mahama was not an independent candidate but from the NDC party hence his welfare is the party concern.(“yoo ya te’’). Because of this court case, I have learnt some common phrases and words used in the law court such as ‘’I suggest to you” ‘’I put it to you”, bad fate, and Order! I don’t know about you but isn’t it interesting? That’s democracy. Even now that the case is been rule in court, both parties and their supporters anticipate a victory at the end of the judgement. You see how democracy has again given hope to the hopeless, indeed when we embrace democracy with all our heart, we will see more beauty of it (democracy).

By J. Naquentera