Abstract
Ghanaians went to the polls on 7 December 2020, for the 8th successive time since the return to constitutional rule in 1993, to elect a President and 275 Members of Parliament. The incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo defeated former President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress, to secure a second term mandate, on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party. In the Parliamentary race, both parties secured 137 seats each with one independent seat. The outcome of the elections, therefore, did not follow the same trend as those held in Ghana in 1992/93, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 in which a victorious party won the presidential and secured majority of the seats in parliament. The outcome of the polls also saw a change in the country's governance system where for the first time, the Speaker of Parliament came from the opposition party. Also, National Democratic Congress, for the first time, officially rejected the outcome of the polls and mounted a challenge in the country’s apex court. The author relied on the qualitative method to examine the process of the conduct of the 2020 general elections, the issues, outcome and analysis of the voting pattern and its implications for electoral politics in Ghana. The paper revealed that the Ghanaian electorate are rational actors who reward hard work and punish mediocracy and not based on destructive ethnic voting. Also, it reiterates the need for vigilance at both the polling stations and collation centres to ensure undisputed elections and to consolidate the gains in Ghana’s electoral politics.
Highlights
Ghanaians went to the polls on 7 December 2020, to elect 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) and a President
The method allowed for a review of both published and unpublished secondary data relating to electoral politics in Ghana
The two who have all occupied the seat at the presidency before were at each other on the basis of track record and other trivialities including the use of abusive words like ‘incompetent’ used by Akufo-Addo on his opponent and ‘Sakawa’ used by Mahama against AkufoAddo
Summary
Ghanaians went to the polls on 7 December 2020, to elect 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) and a President. The chairperson of the EC who is the Returning Officer for the presidential election in Ghana, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa, stated that ‘‘ if we were to add the entire results, or collate all the results of the Techiman South constituency and add that to the percentage and votes of the second candidate, Mr John Dramani Mahama, he will obtain 47.873 percent of the total votes cast and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will obtain 50.8 percent of the total votes cast" [2]. Former President Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, who was the founder of the NDC and chairman of the party’s council of elders, died weeks to the polls His death was unique to the contest because he appeared to love and spoke well of the NPP’s presidential candidates, Nana Akufo-Addo while bitterly complained about his party’s (NDC) inability to hold on to the principles of probity and accountability. The paper examines the factors that accounted for the outcome of the polls which further puts Ghana ahead of many countries in Africa in terms of democratic elections
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