As it is
the case every four years, since the coming into being of the fourth republican
constitution, Ghanaians will vote again to elect their President and
Parliamentarians. As was the case in the 2008 general election, this will be
keenly competitive with very high stakes.
The two
forerunners of this year’s election seem to be very confident of victory.
President John DramaniMahama of the NDC, the incumbent, seeksto retain the seat as the president of Ghana.
Meanwhile, the largest opposition party’s candidate is also seeking to wrestle
power from the incumbent after losing to the former president, the late Prof.
John Evans Atta Mills by a mere forty thousand votes. It is said to be the
closest ever elections held on the African continent.
The
other political parties are also hoping to make great strides in this year’s
elections. The Convention People’s Party(CPP), under the falgbearership of Dr.
Abu Sakara is hoping to improve their lot when they had 1.32% in the last election under
the flagbearership of Dr. Papa KwasiNduom. Interestingly, Dr. Sakara was his
runningmate in the 2008 election. Dr. Nduom, who left the CPP to found his own
political party known as Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), has done very well in
media campaigns and publicity. The only publicity of the CPP candidate is his
strong showing at the IEA organized debate thatwas held in Tamale and Accra.
The
other candidates who are worth mentioning are PNC’s Hassan Ayariga and UFP’s
AkwasiAddae, popularly known as “Odike”. These two candidates are seen the ones
who have made this year’s elections very interesting with their comic posture.
This
year’s election has been issues-based unlike previous ones. It has mainly been
characterized by education. Whilst the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is
promising to make senior secondary education free, the incumbent National
Democratic Congress are quick to point out that they want to expand
infrastructure and make basic education free before they move on to the
senior secondary level.
The stakes
are high in this election for several reasons. The oil reserves have increased
the zeal for the political parties to use it as a major source of funding to
support their policies. Also, in Ghana, elections are seen as the struggle for,
and control of, power. Whilst the NDC will be seeking to hold on to power, the
NPP will be looking to wrestle power from them.
The other political parties will be consolidating their strongholds. CPP
will be expecting to do well in the Northern and Western regions where their
flag bearer and the founder and the chairperson of the party hail from
respectively.
The PPP
will likely to do well in the Central and Western Regions whilst the PNC will
likely hold on to the Northern territories due to the roots of their president
and the personality of the late president Dr. HillaLiman. The other parties
will be very insignificant in this year’s elections. However, after my analysis
of the “smaller parties”, this election will be a straight fight between NDC
and NPP.
Having lost the 2008 election in a second
round by 40,000 votes, Nana AkuffoAddo will be looking to finish hard this time
and with President Mahama as former vice president and now president, he has
never stood for elections for the presidency but will be looking forward to use
incumbency advantage to win this election.
No
matter what the case may be, Ghana will be the winner. All that Ghanaians are praying for is a free and fair election. Only one person
is destined to be the winner and the outcome on Sunday must be accepted by all.
