As the political scene warms up in Ghana, many people are watching to see how sophisticated Ghanaians politicians will be this time round. As to whether the campaigning will take the same form, noisy rallies, promise mongering, indiscriminate postings of posters on walls, Radio, TV and newspaper advertisements as well as the usual euphoria that characterizes election campaigns or something totally different.
Already I see an improvement on the last election campaigns in 2004.While the New Patriotic Party (NPP) goes through the process of selecting a candidate for the 2008 elections, the National Democratic Congresses (NDC), presidential candidate Professor Evans Attah-Mills has kicked started his campaigns. Professor Mills seems to have a new appreciation for woeing voters. He is doing door-to-door campaigns. That isn’t easy but likely to him engage voters on a personal basis and perhaps win him some extra votes if the voters find his ideas plausible. I’ve read stories of Professor Mills becoming a foot soldier himself and interacting with people in places like Abossey Okai and he has plans of replicating it in other places across the country. That definitely looks like an innovation.
Honorable Yaw Osafo Maafo has also suggested another innovation; a debate among the NPP’s presidential primaries candidates. A suggestion endorsed by many of the other presidential hopefuls, but it doesn’t appear the party is giving the suggestion any serious consideration. I am for such a debate; as it would enable the delegates make an informed choice during the party's primaries later in December. I must admit a debate may not necessarily woe new voters it may re-enforce a perception or other wise.
The real thing for me in the period leading up to the elections next year will be to see how the parties and candidates utilize the Internet to engage the electorates especially if the Electoral Commission decides to implement the Representation of the people Amendment Act, ROPAA in 2008. It is without doubt that information is key to any elections and if Ghanaians living abroad are to partake in the presidential elections, they obviously need to understand and appreciate the issues the candidates are speaking to. Not everyone will attend a campaign rally, phone or text their views to a radio or TV station but they can log on the internet to express their views.
I know some people are satisfied with Ghanaian websites carrying stories on them, but is that enough room to address all the issues that the electorates want the politicians to address? Some websites solicit user views on stories that they post, but I guess we are all too familiar with the not too civil dialogue my fellow Ghanaians spend time posting on the sites. I usually visit myjoyonline.com and ghanaweb.com for my news on Ghana, but sometimes I want certain details, which I don’t get on these websites, so to start goggling for other sources. I recently found some interesting websites of Ghanaian politicians and parties.
The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) is the only party with an active website. The rest have either been parked or under construction. The Greater Accra Regional Branch of the NPP’s website is active and the news page is regularly update with news from the local media. Professor Mills campaign website seems to have been idling since 2006 except for comments posted by supporters.
Some of the NPP presidential aspirants also have websites; of the 17 presidential candidates I have counted so far seven of them have some web presence. Allan Kyeremanten, Dan Botwe. Dr Frimpong Boateng, Nana Akuffo Addo, and Dr Arthur Kobina Kennedy have functioning websites, while Osafo Maafo and Jake Obetsebi- Lamptey’s website are under construction. I am yet to locate the website addresses for the rest on the Internet.
These websites contain mostly profiles or biography's of the candidates, their achievement so far, their leadership qualities and strangely very little on what their vision is for the NPP and for that matter are for Ghanaian. Arthur Kennedy blogs weekly on Ghanaian issues, nice idea except that his late entry was on April 7, 2007.He is however, the only aspirants with a clip on youtube. He seems to have a better appreciation of using the web to campaign.
My verdict on Ghanaian politicians using the web to campaign is not an inspiring one but the web has a huge potential as a platform to engage the electorate and even for citizens to talk among themselves as on issues concerns them. Four terms of successful democratic elections calls for real discussion on issues now and not party/personality campaigns we have run in the past.
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