While the 4th Republic remains the most enduring in Ghana’s democratic journey, the two-horse race between New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) has created a perception that each party is entitled to run two consecutive 4-year terms. This perception threatens the peaceful coexistence of Ghanaians during the second term of either party in Government. The key actors of the main opposition party mobilizes its base and incites them to do whatever it takes to annex power from the ruling party.
Allowing the two main political parties to take the country to the brink of civil war at the end of each election cycle especially during the end of the second 4-year term is not acceptable. Since the year 2000, the fourth quarter of every election usher the country into a frenzy, with Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and religious bodies literally competing on organizing peace building events to ensuring peace before, during and after elections. These efforts have so far been successful.
However, given that the average age in Ghana is 21.5 years according to GSS.
Social and political scientist and their collaborators must endeavour to engineer a more stable cycle. Bearing in mind the socio-economic dynamics has changed from what pertained up to the mid 90s:
The stronger bonds built by our forbearers during their time in school have almost been eroded by the current educational policies in operation. A plural media owned mainly by political actors pushes their parochial agenda threatening our nascent democracy. Reduced human interaction due to access to various online platforms, weakens our social ties to each other.
The challenges are compounded by weak state institutions to serve all citizens fairly without taking into account ones political leanings, premised on the winner-takes-all system.
Fortunately, our next election cycle is three calendar years away, hence we can initiate processes and systems to address and insulate the nation from this trend.
By Zoto Pee