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The successful Ghana election of 2008: a convenient myth?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2010

Heinz Jockers ,
Dirk Kohnert  and
Paul Nugent
Heinz Jockers*
Affiliation:
Rothenbaumchaussee 47, 20148Hamburg, Germany
Dirk Kohnert*
Affiliation:
Institute of African Affairs, GIGA – German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, D-20354 Hamburg, Germany
Paul Nugent*
Affiliation:
Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15A George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD, United Kingdom
*
Email: h.jockers@gmx.de
Email: kohnert@giga-hamburg.de
Email: Paul.Nugent@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

Ghana's 2008 election has been hailed by national and international observers as a model for Africa. The perception of success has prevailed despite persistent concerns about an inflated voters' register and electoral fraud perpetrated by the two major parties, the NPP and NDC, in their strongholds in the Ashanti and Volta Regions respectively. Electoral malpractice in Ghana's virtual two-party system could acquire a decisive importance as a ‘third force’, representing an even more important factor than the smaller opposition parties. Unfortunate diplomatic and technocratic biases in election monitoring, combined with a reluctance on the part of the responsible authorities to investigate what appears to be a long history of fraudulent voting, amounts to a dangerous time bomb of unresolved conflict which could detonate in future elections.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 95 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

Thanks for valuable comments go to Sebastian Elischer, Isabel Pfaff and Dario Wachholz at GIGA, Steve Tonah at the University of Ghana, the anonymous reviewers and the editor of JMAS. The responsibility for any fallacies or inaccuracies in the paper remains of course with the authors. The latter participated in the 2008 elections as international election observers with the EU Election Observation Mission and the Carter Center respectively. The views are those of the authors alone.

References

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