Ghana's 2012 Election Petition and Its Outcome: A Giant Leap towards Democratic Consolidation

Abstract

Though not a perfect way of electing leaders, elections tend to be primary and indispensable in a democracy. The importance and recognition attached to elections even put pressure on authoritarian regimes to conduct elections of a sort. Despite its acceptance worldwide, most elections have turned out to be the root cause of the relapse of the advances some emerging societies have made at democratization. This is often the case because the excesses from this voting activity were not managed professionally and with the utmost care needed. Ghana’s 2012 election was faced with similar post-election disagreements between the major contending parties. The atmosphere revealed that tensions were high and supporters from both sides were on the verge of explosion, just waiting for the slight provocation. However, the remarkable issue in Ghana’s case was that, the conflicting parties decided to subject themselves to laid down procedures by abiding by the Constitutional Provisions with regards to election petitions in the country. As a matter of fact, all eyes were on Ghana to come out clean from this post-election quagmire. Using documentary sources, observations and elite interviews, the primary question this paper seeks to address is why Ghana’s 2012 presidential election petition and its aftermath can be regarded as a giant leap in the Country’s march towards democratic consolidation.