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The man who made it possible, Jerry Rawlings, died at the age of 73 on November 12 and his spirit hangs over this year’s election. Rawlings was a military conspirator who ruled the West African country in the 1980s and opened for free elections in 1992. Many African countries did so after the end of the Cold War and Rawlings ruled for another decade with the support of voters. .
But when his mandates Until the end, he did not try to trixa with the constitution and instead stepped aside at the turn of the millennium. It is this crucial act that has made him the founder of modern democracy in Ghana, and has shaped the politics of the country as much as the father of the country, Kwame Nkrumah.
“A large tree has fallen and Ghana is being impoverished by the loss,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement after Rawling’s death.
In a large number of countries on the continent, presidents have expressed support for democratic processes, but when they have chosen to start pointing to the retirement date on the calendar, they have raised other ideas. With long-term government, corruption and repression increase, and the quality of leadership tends to decline as leaders put more and more energy into holding onto power.
Photo: Rebecca Blackwell / AP
The Freedom House think tank, which divides countries into three categories of “free, partially free and unfree” states in its annual report, that there is a polarization in the continent where some countries are moving in a democratic direction while the situation deteriorates in others.
A couple of pure dictatorships have moved in a slightly better direction, while the number of “partially free” countries is increasing the most. Senegal has been pushed out of the small multitude of “completely free” countries that make up only 10 percent of Africa’s population. But the report was released just as the crown crisis hit and the effects of the crisis on next year’s compilation are likely to be dramatic.
However, not in Ghana. This year’s election will be the scheme’s eighth free election in the country. Voters have given the opposition victory three times and the current government has declared itself defeated. Such a shift in power, regional giant Nigeria has only been successful once in the country’s history and it is something that has never happened in a high-ranking democracy like Botswana.
Jerry Rawlings, who passed away in November, was the father of the country’s modern democracy. His eldest daughter, Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, is running as a parliamentary candidate for the opposition NDC party.
Photo: Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP
In the elections, current president Nana Akufo-Addo of the PNP Liberal Party hopes to regain the trust of voters. Against him is John Dramani Mahama, whom he defeated in the 2016 election. Mahama belongs to the Social Democratic NDC that was founded by Rawlings in the 1980s.
On Friday, the two met to confirm with a crown-assured elbow saluting an agreement that the election will proceed peacefully and to assure voters that both parties will accept the election outcome.
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They may belong to parties with different political profiles on the right-left scale, but that is purely nominal. Economic development is highly dependent on the price of oil, which has fallen dramatically even before the crown crisis, and it will be a long time before Ghana returns to the successful years of the early 2010s, when growth was at a premium. consistently above 10 percent. Now the economy appears to contract annually for the first time in modern times.
And despite the power changes then corruption increases. However, the country ranks much higher than neighboring countries and ranks among the least corrupt in Africa at 80 out of 198 on Transparency International’s list.
It won’t be easy to keep your distance when 17 million people have to queue for the polls. However, Ghana, like other countries in the region, has been badly affected by covid-19 medically. Here are supporters of opposition leader John Dramani Mahama at a campaign closing meeting this week.
Photo: Cristina Aldehuela / AFP
A scandal of splendor has affected the country’s football association, which was dissolved and the former president of the association has been fined almost five million crowns and has been suspended by FIFA for life. One of the journalists who exposed the scandal, which involved bribes worth millions of lucrative contracts, was found murdered in January last year.
In the private sector, business representatives complain that bribery has become a part of daily life and responsibility for this development is attributed to both candidates. One commentator writes that Ghanaians in this matter have to choose between a crocodile and an alligator.
A total of 17 million voters are registered to vote. And it will be a challenge to maintain a safe distance in line to the polls, even if the country, like other parts of Africa, has been mildly affected by the crown crisis, medically speaking.
A result is expected to be ready in the next few days. If none of the candidates reaches their own majority, the presidential election will proceed to a second round.
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