POLITICIANS’ REACTIONS TO ELECTION RESULTS IN GHANA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC: A MODEL TO DEMOCRATIC ACQUIESCENCE?

Abstract

Ghana has witnessed three decades of uninterrupted democratic governance since 1993. This feat has been marked by eight (8) successive multiparty elections, laced with three peaceful alternations of political power. Despite this milestone achievement, some practices have almost marred a peaceful transition of power. For instance, central to the alternation of power is the acceptance of electoral defeat by the losing candidate. However, presidential election results since 1992 have been greeted with mixed reactions by defeated presidential candidates. Effects of three out of the eight successful presidential elections (i.e., 1992, 2012, and 2020) have been outrightly rejected, protested, failed to concede defeat, and petitioned by defeated candidates. Against this background, this paper sought to explore the actions and inactions of defeated political parties, their losing presidential candidates and their impact on democratic consolidation in Ghana. The paper adopts the qualitative approach and gleaned data via interviews with Political Science and Electoral Politics experts, leaders of political parties and policymakers, and analysis of extant literature. The paper argues that perceived rigging, mistrust in the election management body, margin of defeat, and winner-takes-all politics imbibed in Ghana’s democratic governance linger and manifest defeated presidential candidates’ reluctance to concede defeat. Such tendencies predicate a rocky and bumpy road to Ghana’s democratic consolidation.