Newly Elected Ghanaian President John Atta Mills Takes the Oath of OfficeGhana held its regularly scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections around one month after our own elections at the end of last year. Ghana experienced an incredibly tight contest between the two candidates complete with its own version of our snafus in the 2000 election. Yet Ghana's young democracy came through, resulting in the second peaceful transfer of power to the opposition since the restoration of democracy in 1992.
The First Round
Many African democracies have one dominant party--usually associated with the president. Like the United States, Ghana has two vibrant parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of newly elected President John Atta Mills and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of outgoing President John Kufuor. Kufuor could not run for reelection as he had served the maximum two terms allowed under the Ghanaian Constitution, and the NPP banner was carried by Nana Akuffo-Addo.
The first round was very close. Akuffo-Addo led Mills by 49.13% to 47.92%. Turnout was down from 2004 but that was widely viewed as the product of a successful clampdown on fraudulent registrations, especially by people not yet of voting age. As no candidate won a majority, a second round was held a few weeks later.
The Second Round
If the first round was close, the second round on December 28 was even closer. Mills of the NDC very narrowly led Akuffo-Addo of the governing NPP. However, there were problems with a shortage of ballots in one parliamentary constituency, Tain, so the independent Electoral Commission decided to hold a revote there on January 2 as the difference between the two presidential candidates was so small that the results in Tain could at least theoretically change the outcome.
Tensions grew as both parties accused the other of tampering with the vote in their regional strongholds. The NPP claimed that the NDC had acted improperly in the Volta Region, infamously called the NDC "World Bank" for votes by former NDC President Jerry Rawlings. The NDC made similar accusations regarding NPP behavior in Ashanti, the NPP regional stronghold.
When I visited Ghana in late September, I had been impressed that supporters of both parties widely perceived the vote as free and fair. The ballots are placed in transparent boxes, making them hard to stuff, and they are counted at the polling place in the presence of observers from both major parties with the results posted immediately at the polling place, so all can see.
These operations seemed to help give confidence in the count as it made it harder for fraudsters to mysteriously change the result on the way to some central counting headquarters. Complaints about the electoral process centered overwhelmingly on the voter registration list. Nonetheless, several constituencies in Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti and Ghana's second largest city, reported updated results in 2008 with the second report being stronger for the NPP.
The Second Round, Take Two in Tain
Both candidates travelled to Tain where the election would finally be settled. The preliminary results from the second round without Tain had Mills just ahead. In the first round in Tain, Mills had narrowly beat Akuffo-Addo by just 51% to 47%. However, he won in a landslide in the second round, solidifying Mills' lead and claim to the presidency.
Obviously, I wasn't there so I can only speculate why voters in Tain plumped so heavily for Mills in the second round. One reason might be the tendency to go with the winner to join the winning side, possibly in the hope of patronage. Akuffo-Addo would have had to win Tain by a landslide to overcome Mills' national lead even though it was a small one.
Perhaps the voters of Tain wanted to help Ghana avoid potential post-election violence--the violence in Kenya and several other African countries had been given much press attention in advance of the election as a negative example. Regardless of who they preferred, many Ghanaians wanted a peaceful outcome above all. Including Tain, Mills won by 50.23% to 49.77%.
Accepting the Results
President Kufuor played a positive role, encouraging all the accept the results of the Electoral Commission in advance of the poll and quietly pressing Akuffo-Addo to concede after he had lost this extremely tight contest. Mills also promised to hold no grudges and represent all Ghanaians. Akuffo-Addo conceded and wished Mills well even as he cited the need to correct irregularities in the future.
Ghanaian Exceptionalism
Perhaps surprisingly, Ghana uses the same first-past-the-post system to elect its parliament that we use in the U.S. to elect the House of Representatives and is often viewed in Africa as a recipe for ethnic conflict as it allows each party to capture their home region and potentially sweep all the seats in it.
Somehow, Ghana has avoided this problem and presents a real challenge to the current wisdom among scholars of electoral systems. In Ghana, each party has an ethnic base--the NDC does very well among the Ewe of the Volta and the NPP does best among the Asante in Ashanti. However, neither group is big enough to dominate the country. Ethnic voting is not totally homogenous even in the bases, particularly in Ashanti.
Even more interestingly, the Asante are part of a larger group of closely related ethnic groups called the Akan which speak very similar languages. However, the Akan--the largest ethnic group in Ghana--have notably not consolidated within a single party. Divisions among the Akan and resentment of past Asante dominance may explain this outcome.
Whatever the reason, it appears healthy for Ghanaian democracy as both parties have to build coalitions well beyond their own bases in order to win nationally. While the parties undoubtedly have ethnic bases and a certain ethnic appeal, they are not ethnic parties. Perhaps Ghana's success owes something to success in creating a national identity that goes beyond ethnicity, a genuine problem in countries which were originally colonial creations and cobbled together many ethnic groups. I saw Ghanaian flags and colors everywhere during my visit.
Even more interestingly, Ghana has also avoided the pattern of the presidential party becoming incredibly dominant in the wake of an electoral victory. Even after losing power in 2000, the NDC survived and came back to win in 2008. The NPP did not fade after losing in 1992 and 1996, and came to power in 2000.
The second successful transfer of power should solidify Ghana's status as one of the most successful democracies in Africa. Interestingly, the results also reflect the view of Ghanaians who thought an Obama victory in the US would benefit the NDC in Ghana.
Coverage in the Washington Post
While the Post commendably ran an editorial lauding Ghana's democracy, it's a pity that it never merited more than a postage stamp blip of news coverage. It reminds me of why I tell Canadians they shouldn't be offended by the lack of news coverage of Canada in the U.S. Just look at what is going on in countries, like Zimbabwe, which make the papers.
