Ghana, the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence in 1957, has since 1992 been conducting elections that have earned her several praises from the international community for its democratic credentials.

The November 2016 elections is yet again another great opportunity for the West African nation to demonstrate its maturity in the democratisation process.

If conducted successfully, the 2016 elections will further deepen Ghana’s democratic credentials and send a signal to the international community that peaceful elections are possible in Africa.

In the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, various political parties in the country are preparing feverishly to wrest power from the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) party.

Some of these contenders are the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

Preparatory stage

Preparations towards the 2016 elections in principle began immediately the results of the last election were announced and winners declared. Political parties started evaluating and reviewing their previous campaign messages, policies, programmes stratagems etc. in order to appreciate their performance and ensure better performance in the next election.

In the 2012 elections, the NPP attributed their defeat to vote rigging by the ruling NDC. They contested the election results at the Supreme Court and for almost eight months, the country came to a standstill. Nonetheless, the NDC were declared winners.

The other political parties, the CPP and PNC obtained minimal percentages in the last election and did not come close to winning. They lack the numbers needed to win any election in Ghana and it might take them years to mobilise themselves into formidable political groups capable of winning any election.

Second stage

The second stage towards the 2016 elections is organising party congresses to reaffirm the commitment of members to the parties as well as electing leaders to prepare them to become a winning party.

The NPP was the first to organise a congress to elect a flag bearer with Nana Akufo-Addo winning the single slot to represent his party again.

The NPP are, however, still embroiled with internal strife and factionalism born from its last congress and the suspension of its party Chairman, Paul Afoko; General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, and First Deputy Chairman, Sammy Crabbe, for supposedly violating the constitution of the party.

The ruling NDC, on the other hand, conducted their presidential primary with the sitting president, John Mahama, going unopposed. The only person who tried contesting the president, George Boateng, was disqualified for not meeting the standards of the party’s registration. The NDC has also completed their parliamentary primaries across the country.

On the part of the CPP and PNC, internal strife seems to have settled in the initial stages of preparations towards 2016. Hassan Ayariga, who was the presidential candidate for the PNC in the last election, fell out with the party after losing to Dr Edward Mahama in the primaries, and has since formed his own party known as African Peoples’ Congress (APC). Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, a former General Secretary of the CPP, shocked Samia Nkrumah, daughter of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, by winning the only slot to contest the presidential election on the ticket of the party. The PPP is led by Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, who many believe is a good presidential material in the wrong party.

Final stage

The final stage of preparation will be ushered by the Electoral Commission (EC) when they announce the final list of contesting parties and persons and lift the ban on official campaigns.

The parties will then begin serious criss-crossing of the country to solicit votes from the electorate. The NPP have called for a new voters register because they believe the current register is not “clean” but the EC has rejected the claim and said the current register is the best since Ghana returned to multiparty democracy in 1992 and has called on all stakeholders to help “clean” the register to remove all “ghost” names from it.

As typical of Ghanaian and African elections in general, 2016 promises to be exciting, judging from the euphoria that greets people every election year.

Apart from the usual sweet talks on political platforms, politicians would suddenly tend to be nice towards everyone. They attend every funeral they hear of and make their presence felt. Ghanaians particularly like funerals and use such occasions to pay their last respects to their loved and departed ones. Politicians often use such moments to show how caring they are to the people and sometimes support the bereaved families financially.

Intemperate language

There is a growing culture of insults and the use of intemperate language by politicians who use the media to castigate their political opponents. This is sending shivers down the spines of many people who fear there is likely to be the shedding of blood in Ghana in 2016, as is being witnessed in certain parts of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Egypt, Libya, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia.

The NDC lauds itself for eliminating schools under trees, increasing the capitation grant, introducing science and mathematics scholarships to students and free school uniforms, and massive infrastructural development across the country, among others. These achievements, they believe, are unprecedented in Ghana’s history and believe Ghanaians will renew their mandate to enable them continue their good works.

The NPP, on the other hand, have learnt lessons from their defeats in 2008 and 2012 and have put in stringent measures not to repeat the mistakes of yesteryears.

The NPP saw power slipping from their hands to the NDC by a small margin that has been described as the closest election contests in the history of Africa in both elections. The NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, promised in his election campaign to introduce free education from the primary to the senior high levels in order to give the Ghanaian child a future of hope and prosperity since education is the surest way of becoming successful in life.

He believes the NDC lacks the vision to move Ghana out of poverty and is travelling wide and near to convince Ghanaians to buy his vision and vote for him in November 2016.

It is the hope of every Ghanaian that the 2016 elections will be peaceful and that Ghana would come off as a winner and show to the world that “the African is capable of managing her own affairs”. Some Ghanaians are calling on the international community, as usual, to come and observe how Ghana will cement their democratic credentials in 2016.

The security services must prepare adequately and act professionally during and after the election. When this is done, Ghana will be peaceful before, during and after the 2016 elections.