The Future Of Our Democracy: The Election System

The principles of democracy have come to stay ever since this nation decided to give it a chance in 1992 general election. In fact our democracy was tested in the year 1992 when we as a nation decided to elect our leaders through a system called general elections. It is also important to know that democracy is government by the people. That means all the people should be able to have their say in one way or the other in everything that concerns their lives.

It is amazing to know that one unique thing that comes in mind when democracy is mentioned is election. And this is true. For the entire people to be able to demonstrate their will, then it calls for a system that will truly portray the will of the people. So it is however prudent to say election is the product of democracy.

The Electoral Commission
Nevertheless the gentleness of democracy has made it necessary to write a constitution. The 1992 constitution of Ghana was written and in it, it mandated an independent body called the Electoral Commission to be the sole body by the law to organize elections in this nation.

The EC through its leaders have been in charge of every election in the country, and have helped elect a number of people to serve as both head of state and members of parliament. Ghana has gone through the polls for six times to elect the nations president and its parliamentarians.

Let me not try and deep down to the structure of the Electoral Commission since this article does not aim at that. But this is to outline some problems associated to the work of the Commission.

I believe it cannot be disputed that one major problems that has since been associated to the Commission over the years after every election is the continuous allegation of election not reflecting the true will of the people. From 1992-2012 political parties have raised the issue of results of elections not depicting the true will of the people as they voted. To the best of my knowledge I do not believe elections; a product of democracy should ever be questioned about its outcome since it is a period where people demonstrate their say. It does not matter what political promises political parties and leaders make to the people but ones a person goes to the poll to make that choice, that choice should actually be made to reflect its true state.

Due to this, stakeholders have helped provide measures and ideas to getting the electoral system being devoid of some of these things. Some of these ideas gave birth to the electoral commission using transparent ballot boxes instead of the opaque ballot boxes, a change from the black and white voter ID to a coloured voter ID, a manual voter registration to a more scientific biometric voter registration. In addition to the biometric voter registration is a biometric voter verification system. All of these upgrades were aimed at getting the best and true reflection of our democratic right as citizens of this nation as we demonstrate it on Election Day.

At the just ended 2012 general election, the country has been hit with the greatest election challenge of all time. The NPP is strongly challenging the outcome of the December election at the Supreme Court, an event which has never been seen in the history of our nation. A major reason of their challenge is that the election had witnessed high degrees of irregularities that do not reflect the true say of the people of Ghana.

However one cannot dispute the fact that the 2012 general election was not marked with a number of irregularities. According to the Chairman of the Commission the conduct of certain officers hired to assist in the 2012 general election did not meet the satisfaction of the commission. In the review of the 2012 election organized in Ho the chairman admitted certain individuals had different motives of being part of the electoral officers hired to organize the election. He again made it clear to the representatives some of these officers will be prosecuted for failing to go by the rules of the election.

Hearing the chairman speak this way makes it too easy to believe that the NPP claim of massive irregularities in the election is true. But this notwithstanding makes me wonder whether the essence of the people's democratic right is being made to work. If electoral officers could go against the law by any means and make their actions or inactions influence the outcome of the election then where is the democracy that allows the people to speak through elections? Democracy and Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo makes me to believe that the outcome of an election should not be determined by the one who supervises, one who observes one who counts or one who declares the results but it is about the people having their say through their ballot.

The Future of Our Elections
Sometimes I wonder if the EC's work is just to organize election in this country. Because it is quite clear that all upgrades that have ever hit our electoral system are ideas and initiatives from stakeholders. Even with organizing the 2012 general election the chairman admitted to have done a very poor work by hiring people with different motives towards the election. In article 52 of the commission's constitution, they are to recruit the best people for the job and instill in them the commission's code of conduct.

Since 1992 political parties who believed the outcome of elections do not reflect the true will of the people raised degrees of concerns and allegations. The pattern had since increased from one allegation to another from 1992-2012. The chairman of the EC always responds to these allegations by asking whoever to go to court to have his or her case resolves. Little did we know there will be a time where someone could challenge the election in the Supreme Court. The opposition is challenging the 2012 election in court something nobody has been able to do in this country. This shows that the degree of allegations in 1992 is not the same in 2012. What then will it be in 2016?

Meanwhile it is the mission of the EC to advance the course of democracy and good governance for enhanced development of Ghana by institutionalizing free, fair and transparent elections to the acceptance of all stakeholders. I beg to ask if the EC is indeed working hard to getting these goals achieved. What new is the EC planning towards future elections? I can confidently predict that the aftermath of the 2012 election will be worse than in 2016 if the EC fail to do anything.

Way Forward
The PPP and the CPP have all tabled a number of ideas to the EC to consider in subsequent elections. One of such is voting electronically. I do not rubbish the idea since it is aimed at making us have a true reflection of the people's vote. The EC should not of any circumstances rubbish the idea.

I believe it is all about management. In as much as there can be a perfect event management there can also be a perfect election management where all electorates will have no comment to make afterwards. I beg to ask the EC just this question; is it mandatory to use just a day (7th December) to organize general elections?

From the above table, it can clearly be seen that at every period the people who are eligible to vote increases. The EC is mandated to organize election for all these people for just a day (7th December). This election is to be free, fair and transparent. The results of the election should reflect the true will of the people. It cannot be disputed that in subsequent elections the number of eligible voters will increase from the 2012 figure of over 14 million to somewhere around 17 million in 2016, and election would have to be organized for all these people on the same day. Such election is never going to be fair and transparent even if it becomes free. This is why I doubt the credibility of our future elections should the EC use the same approach as 2012.

Splitting the Election
There are ten regions in this country, so why can't the EC organize elections for each region at different days. As it stands now it is obvious the EC is finding it difficult organizing a national election in a day so why not split it in regions and give ten days to organizing this. Resources will be well allocated, hire personnel will be well trained, people can easily monitor elections etc.

It should not matter how long it takes the EC to organize a general election but what should matter should have all stakeholders see the election as free, fair and transparent. America and the other countries use this system because of their electorate growth rate. Ghana has always seen growth in the electoral register therefore one cannot dispute the fact that managing such event as a general election will not encounter challenges. But these challenges should not in any way influence the outcome of the election. So there will be the need to strategize how elections are organized.

Ghana as we all say is a democratic nation and it is during our elections that we demonstrate this credential.

Borrowing the words of Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo again, the outcome of an election should not be determined by the one who supervises the one who observes, the one who monitors or the one who even declares the results but it should be about the people having their votes count.

God bless our home land Ghana and make our nation great and strong!

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