Saturday 3 January 2009

Ghana Elections

Ghana is the blue eye boy of the African continent. One of Africa’s brightest know democracies; from the famous Kwame Nkrumah for his revolutionary and progressive views and aspiration for a united Africa. To a chequered past was with that of infamous Jerry Rawlings – (NDC); who came to power repeatedly via the barrel of a gun. Rawlings finally adopted self-governing values with elections that eventually saw him crowned as president.

Election today in Ghana is a stark reminder of how far the nation have come since it’s independence 51 years ago. Ghana is a mature democracy having grown as a nation with decent economic growth forecasts that have cemented their position globally as a major producer of cocoa, gold and now new found wealth of high grade oil.

No wonder the John Atta-Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling party New Patriotic Party (NPP) are prepared to fight tooth and nail to the bitter end; to get what must be a lucrative opportunity for high office in Ghana.

A win for John Atta-Mills of (NDC) will be dogged by counter claims and further appeals by (NPP) to the electoral commission of vote rigging and election irregularities. Both parties must use the judiciary in line with the constitution and take their grievance to the courts.

Both the (NDC) and (NPP) must respect the courts decision as final, failure to adhere could lead to increased tensions that could lead to chaos and anarchy.

The court and the electoral commission must follow International good practice as was shown in Sierra Leone elections of 2007 and release information in a timely fashion preventing and avoiding chaos of Kenya elections of 2008.

What is clear is that the 7th of January 2008 will see the end of President John Kufuor reign and see the crowning of a new president in Ghana.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ghana will soon need a border, or there might be a large population increase from poorer, neighboring African Countries, and Ghana's economy can not support any more people that it has now, even though it does have a fairly good economic growth rate.

Do you remember Abidjan/Cote d'Ivoire in the 80's?

S.Carter said...

Very good writing. The one thing that I want to praise you for in hopes you will always continue to do it. Take advantage of every opportunity you can to teach. Never miss one if at all possible. An informed people are a people that make good decisions for the people. TBTS.