In Ghana, Voters Feel They Choose Between the Lesser of Two Evils

Given the history of ruling parties failing to secure self-succession and the significant disappointment many Ghanaians feel towards Akufo-Addo’s administration, Bawumia’s affiliation with him isn’t doing him much good with many citizens.

“My opinion, like many of my peers, is that this government hasn’t lived up to expectations. Many young people were invested in this government, but they’ve shown us pepper,” Paul Kojo Ayitey, a music executive, tells OkayAfrica. “They promised heaven on earth but never delivered. Instead, it’s been a series of scandals, with countless injustices inflicted on those who dare to speak out,” he says, referring to the constant crackdown on dissenting voices and protesters.

The most pressing issue for Ghanaians going into the election is the country’s economy, which has significantly worsened under Akufo-Addo’s second term. “Bawumia says he and his party want tobreak the eight but it also comes on the back of so many [failures] by the NPP government that they have rather attributed to macroeconomic instability [caused by] the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID-19 pandemic,” says Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, an associate professor in the history and political science department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

According to Adu-Gyamfi, the critical state of Ghana’s economy has, “helped raise Mahama from the grave to be active in Ghana’s politics today.” Mahama’s ousting from office after his first full term was in similar circumstances, as his government was beset bya raft of corruption scandals and criticized forlack of economic growth and severe power outages.

“When he was the president, and he lost power in 2016, his administration faced widespread allegations of corruption,” Adu-Gyamfi says. “One of his ministers was caught on record stating her goal was to amassat least $1 million before she left office.”

In his campaign for a second and final term, Mahama said he wouldrelaunch Ghana’s economy, boost job creation, and focus on government accountability. The 65-year-old also said he would scrap first-year university fees to boost tertiary education and reduce taxes.

Meanwhile, Bawumia hassimilar talking points, with plans to provide digital training to over one million Ghanaian youth to boost job creation prospects. He also stated his commitment to cutting the cost of government, including cutting the number of ministers in half and generally ensuring better accountability. However, critics of the NPP point out that he’s a part of Akufo-Addo’s government, which is accused of being ultra-corrupt anddeeply opposed to protests calling forbetter management of the West African country’s resources.

Bawumia has attempted to distance himself from the outgoing government, saying he’s been constantly sidelined by Akufo-Addo. “Ghana’s constitution gives the president enormous power to do a lot of things, and the Vice President has little or no power to perform any rule except the rules that the president will assign him to, so his argument is, ‘I have not run the state before,’” Adu-Gyamfi says.

The annoyance with the NPP will no doubt play a role in worsening Bawumia’s chance of winning, as it will improve Mahama’s chances. “We hoped this would be the time things changed for the better,” Ayitey says of the NPP pessimism, “so it’s sort of a situation of choosing the lesser of two evils,” for Ghanaian voters.

Voter turnout is always reasonably strong in the presidential election; however, it is usually higher when incumbents retain power. In 2020, 79 percent of registered voters were at the polls when Akufo-Addo won his second term, compared to 69 percent when Mahama lost his second consecutive term for the NDC.

“Quite often when we’ve gone into elections, and the people are not excited about the incumbent, we’ve seen that there is sometimes apathy on the part of the followership of the incumbent,” Adu-Gyamfi explains. “In many respects, they refuse to go to the polls to vote for the party in power, and it’s also difficult for them to switch their votes to the opposition party.”

Although recently rocked bya controversial decision to limit press access to the vote counting and collation center, a decision itoverturned following public outcry, Ghana’s electoral commission is expected to conduct a free and fair election. “People don’t doubt the credibility of the Electoral Commission,” Ayitey says. “We don’t think the EC will alter or change the result in any way; there shouldn’t be any major incident where the commission will change the entire result. Generally, we feel it will be a close race, so everyone hopes it goes smoothly.”

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Over the course of 2024, 20 African countries will be holding elections. For more election coverage, check out our Election Tracker.