Close elections in Ghana recipe for “cheating” – Law Prof

A professor of constitutional law, H Kwasi Prempeh, says the rivalry between Ghana’s two main parties – governing National Democratic Congress and main opposition New Patriotic Party – creates a conducive environment for cheating and electoral malpractice.

The Seton Hall University School of Law Professor told a forum organised by policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana on Friday to mark the first anniversary of last year's election petition verdict that: “As our two main rival parties have become roughly equally matched in their national electoral strength, our quadrennial presidential and parliamentary elections have become increasingly fiercely and often nastily contested with only a thin margin and votes separating the declared winner from the runner-up in the presidential ballot”.

“The closeness of the results in our presidential elections not only raises the prospect that the initially announced result will be disputed and challenged by the purported loser, it also increases the incentives for cheating and election malpractice by the rival parties as they each try to maximise their vote harvest in their by-and-large ethnically-skewed strongholds”, Prof Prempeh told his audience.

As far as he is concerned, “Ghana’s much-heralded reputation as an exemplary democracy in Africa…is tied not so much to the fact that we govern well – Heaven knows that we don’t govern well: in fact, we govern very poorly – but it is tied very much to how well we choose and change governments through periodic elections."

He, however, said that reputation might not last, considering tension and disputes that nearly marred the country’s last two general elections.

“…It is indeed our record established since 2000 of orderly and relatively peaceful elections and seamless transition in government that has put us on the map as a success story in contemporary African democracy. Our last two general elections however have tested our capacity to hold on to that reputation."