African Elections

In culmination of the recent class readings and discussion on governance and democracy, this week we discussed democracy and elections with the focus being on Ghana.

If you were to ask people what the most important or most notable component of democracy is, most, if not all, will say elections. The ability to vote for who you think is better suited to rule your city, town, state or county is an important aspect of a democratic state. The method in regards to how elections are conducted, how candidates get their names on ballots, or how a winner is declared, all depends on the individual country.

For this class session, we watched the documentary "An African Election" which recounted aspects of the Ghanaian election. The documentary focused on providing the viewer with a decent reflection of how elections are conducted in Ghana and included the campaigning of the candidates, the process of voting by citizens as well as the declaration of a winner.

                                         

The film begins with the candidates and their respective parties making appearances and canvassing different areas for support and votes. While the candidates were stating the reason why they should be elected into office and making all of their promises, it was very noticeable that both candidates sought to deliver the same changes to Ghana. What seemed to differ though, as some of the citizens in the film pointed out, is the manner in which they planned to deliver these changes. The citizens decide on who to vote for based upon who they think actually has the capacity to produce change and produce it effectively. Besides the candidates ability to deliver change, citizens are also swayed to vote for a candidate based on the individual's ethnic background or state origin.

Although the rallies that are hosted by the different parties seem to be flocked with numerous citizens, many of the Ghanaians in the film did not seem to put much stock in the elections. Many of them have voted in the past and yet have witnessed very little to no change in regards to the country's development- many individuals are still poor, many are unemployed and many lack basic access to food and education. Despite their disenchantment with previous elections, many still held out hope for change from this election.

The manner in which this election was conducted was very strange to me. The whole time, from when ballots were being cast to the election counting office, I did not see the elections going smoothly. Obviously, the country still has some developing to do. The manner in which votes were handled by the individuals at the polling places seemed sloppy and left lots of room for error. Hopefully in the near future, Ghana will transition to a computerized voting system, improve the operation of their polling centers and ease the aggressiveness of party officials in the election room.