Election Day draws near

Wow, I really let this blog go for a while.  Sorry about that!  I'll try to post more regularly in the future. 

Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which both occur every four years, are just two days away.  The excitement has been both palpable and audible; an intermittent, hours-long procession of opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters marched, rode and drove through my neighborhood today, blowing vuvuzelas, whistles, and trumpets and shouting slogans.  Supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had a similar march in another part of town.  Both parties were marking the last day of campaigning, which I will explain below.

When voting begins at 7 am this Friday, many voters will have already been waiting in line outside polling places for two hours or more so that they can cast their votes early and then get on with their days.  One neighbor mentioned to me that he always votes around 4 pm, an hour before polls close, because by then there are no lines at most polling places.  The same neighbor told me that the people who get there in the early morning usually wake up that early anyways for work, (in this country, many people’s schedules are dictated by the sun.) 

Elections tend not to be completely free of violence or voter fraud here, but as many Ghanaians are quick to point out, Ghana's elections are more peaceful and transparent than those of most other African countries.  This year, though, people seem genuinely committed to peace.  The collective desire is stronger now, they tell me, than it was in previous elections.  The government has also designed a more sophisticated security apparatus this year.  One neighbor even told me that he recently saw a friend of his, a muscular police commander, jogging with all his toughest officers in the Brong (originally Bono) Ahafo Region.  The man said he couldn't remember the last time he had seen cops run.  The Electoral Commission, the public office responsible for conducting elections, has also introduced a new rule prohibiting loitering and motorbikes within a certain distance of polling places, making it harder to steal ballot boxes and intimidate voters.  Finally, today was designated the last day of campaigning, giving people a couple of days to calm down so that passions are not too inflamed when polls open.

These kinds of reports are very encouraging.  However, for many Ghanaians, the concern is not only who wins and how many voters get hurt but also the way that people conduct themselves.  An array of prominent Ghanaian political actors have in so many words called this election a pivotal point in Ghana's history.  The country has come a long way in recent times, and since the passage of the 1992 Constitution of the Fourth Republic, which established Ghana as a democracy, the nation held five presidential elections and weathered two transitions of power between parties.  None of these was ultimately disrupted by violence.  A few months ago, when the president died and the vice president assumed his position, I didn't hear a single report of violence even though both of these events were unprecedented in Ghana's history. 

The consensus is that if Ghanaians can hold this election without a major incident, they will have solidly arrived in a new era of political stability.  This would hopefully accelerate development by making the nation appear less risky to lenders.  Many public figures have also remarked that the whole world, especially Africa, will be watching Ghana to see what kind of example it sets with this election. 

Some Ghanaians can argue all day about which of the two major parties is better.  Most of the time, they end up talking past each other like so many Americans do. Still, I get the sense from people on both sides of the aisle, (an expression that is not current here,) that in spite of the incessant political bickering, they hope and believe that new ground will be broken in this election.

Last week, the presidential candidates met in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region and Ghana's second largest city, where they signed a non-binding pledge to strive for electoral peace and transparency and to punish anyone in their ranks that violates the agreement.  The event was held with much fanfare and featured speeches by the Fourth Republic's two living ex-presidents and many of the presidential candidates.  Opposition NPP presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo took the occasion to make reference to his opponent’s party’s bad track record on electoral violence.  He was widely criticized for the move, which members of the governing NDC said was a gesture of bad faith.  However, his complaint also highlighted a concern that has since been echoed by members of both parties: it’s good and well to make nice in front of the cameras, but it all really comes down to how people actually behave on Election Day.

Interestingly, both parties have hoards of members and associates who flood the airwaves and party-affiliated newspapers with insults and vitriol directed at political rivals.  Even on the day of the peace declaration, these people continued trading allegations that the other side had been secretly plotting electoral violence. 

Overall, people seem optimistic that this election will be peaceful, but few are completely sure of it.  They are apprehensive because when tensions are high, disorder can spread easily.  Reports of violence against supporters of one party in one place can incite thugs loyal to that party to stir up trouble elsewhere.  And of course this year's contest is no ordinary election, it’s a potential watershed moment in the nation's history. 

Some of the people I’ve talked to say they are absolutely convinced that there will be violence and fraud.  At the other end of the spectrum, I have a coworker who, when another colleague raised the issue of reporting on electoral violence, asked us not to talk about it, not to even humor the possibility that violence could break out.  I didn’t ask him why, but I suspect that he reacted that way because he knows that a report of violence, true or false, is likely to spur more violence.  I think he finds the prospect of being a part of that process distressing. 

Work at my media job will begin by 5 or 6 am on Friday, when I’ll be visiting polling places around my neighborhood in search of interviews and human-interest stories.  By 10 am, I'll be working out of the office.  Today they told us that we'll work until the results are declared, which will hopefully happen no more than 48 hours after polls first open.  A friend at the company advised me to bring a change of clothes, but I luckily live five minutes from the office.

NB: While in power, both of the two main parties have presided over rampant systematic corruption and administrative ineptitude.  However, both have also brought development and other kinds of progress, such as the expansion of civil liberties.  The NDC claims to be more socialist leaning and the NPP more capitalist, but this election season, NPP presidential candidate Akufo-Addo ran principally on the promise to make senior high school (i.e. the last two years of high school) free.  In fact, both campaigns have promised free handouts and proposed public-private partnerships to boost the economy and catalyze development.  And unlike the two major political parties in the United States, no social issues divide the NDC and NPP.  More often than not, voting patterns follow ethnic lines. 

Most Ghanaians see a world of difference between the two parties and are shocked when they learn that I can't.  I’ve found that some Ghanaians, especially those fiercely loyal to one party, they think they can determine the slant of almost any news story.  Many of these people would surely believe that I am an NDC supporter because earlier in this post, I shared an unflattering anecdote about Akufo-Addo but did not follow up with a criticism of his opponent, sitting president John Mahama.  I'm sure you can believe me when I tell you all that I have no preference for or affiliation with any Ghanaian political party.