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The Supreme Court of Ghana confirmed the victory of President Akufo-Addo in the December 7, 2020 elections. This followed a challenge from former President John Mahama. The court ruled that there was no reason to order a re-vote. Akufo-Addo can now focus on the agenda for his second term.
This is the second such petition in Ghana in the last eight years. By all indications, we can expect to see more, in Ghana and other African countries. The trend is already set in Ghana: the 2020 and 2021 election results were fiercely contested by the losing party. Most of the polls were also clouded by violence.
The most recent survey in Ghana was relatively peaceful. But the post-election political environment was fraught with tension. The opposition rejected the results and asked supporters to take to the streets to prevent the electoral commission from “stealing the elections.”
Electoral disputes and petitions are becoming a prominent feature of the electoral process. Many of these disputes and petitions reflect widespread electoral irregularities on the continent. While they may threaten the peace of a nation, they enhance the culture of democracy and expose an underlying cry for inclusive governance.
A natural extension of the electoral process
Post-election crises are not new in Ghana. Elections in which the opposition fails to topple the incumbent are almost always marred by accusations of fraud and vote rigging. For example, the 2012 elections in which Akufo-Addo failed to remove then-President Mahama was hotly contested. In that election, opposition protests led to a series of violent incidents.
During the weeks following the elections, Akufo-Addo filed what was at the time the largest legal action before the Supreme Court. The court received a flood of around half a million documents from more than 11,000 polling stations to prove double voting, ballot padding and other forms of illegal voting.
In the end, he dismissed the petition but ordered reforms to the electoral process.
Mahama’s petition to revoke the 2020 elections made similar accusations of double voting, ballot filling, and other forms of illegal voting.
In addition to his petition, 16 legal proceedings were initiated by parliamentary candidates from the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress.
Winner takes all systems
Ghana has a majority presidential system. The first candidate to pass the 50% plus one threshold assumes all the power that comes with the position. This “winner takes all” system makes losing elections extremely costly.
Political candidates spend millions of dollars campaigning. Therefore, it becomes difficult to accept the results when they and their supporters are suddenly informed that they have lost the elections and, in fact, will have no part in the governance of the country.
Therefore, ballot petitions are seen as the final tool in the playbook of doing everything possible for power.
The high cost of losing elections in win-win democracies also incentivizes rulers to try to maintain power at all costs, even if that means bribing electoral institutions or using the state apparatus such as the military to repress. the will of the people. These acts in themselves make electoral petitions unavoidable as the opposition’s propensity to reject results under such conditions increases.
Research has also shown that losing parties in democratic regimes often have an incentive to reject election results. While the losing parties in autocratic regimes reasonably reject the results to publicize fraud, the losing parties in democratic regimes may do so for different reasons.
They often seize the opportunity to challenge election results to create influence over the freedom and fairness of elections. This influence then serves as a lever for the losing party to negotiate favorable reforms with the government.
Presidential petitions also represent a significant investment in a country’s democratic culture.
A presidential petition involves all three arms of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. As the petition unfolds, citizens have a unique opportunity to learn about the legal and political operations of their electoral system and other national institutions. As citizens learn more about how elections are held and administered, and how elections can be stolen, they become more vigilant and can help reverse such acts in the future.
Elections in Africa are evolving from apparent manipulation to sophisticated (mis) administration. Voters who participate in the process are more likely to pick up on administrative attempts to rig an election than international observers who patrol polling stations.
In conclusion, electoral disputes and petitions are good for growing democracies. They represent useful opportunities for opposition groups to participate in governance. They also activate national institutions to carry out valuable reforms and affirm the confidence of citizens in the electoral process.
John Taden does not work for any company or organization that benefits from this article, does not consult, own stock, or receive funds from any company that benefits from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic position.
By John Taden, University of Texas at Dallas College of Economic, Political and Political Sciences
