As the dust begins to settle on the 2020 General Elections, I have made some observations that I wish to share as follows:
1. Quite a significant percentage of Ghanaians were not enthused about some of the policies or behaviour of the NPP in government.
2. But this same segment of Ghanaians were uncomfortable trusting the obvious alternative to be in government.
3. Quite a significant number of NPP Members of Parliament slept on the job and examples abound.
4. Ghanaians are getting very sophisticated and can no longer be ‘fooled’ with electoral freebies for votes. Governments and MPs ought to earn their votes by working hard and delivering results that inure to the felt needs of the citizens.
5. There’s no doubt that H.E. Dr Bawumia and the likes of Hassan Tampuli worked extraordinarily hard to ensure the closing of the gap in the presidential and annexing of NDC seats in the regions of the north.
6. It is however obvious that the bulk of the swing regions have given a clear verdict on the NPP governance of the NPP government with their ‘skirt and blouse’ votes.
7. Going forward, the NPP must completely overhaul its methods for selecting parliamentary candidates to ensure that only the will of the electorate prevails in primaries. The best approach may be to allow all card-bearing members to form the electoral college that elects the parliamentary candidates for any constituency.
8. The idea of protecting certain parliamentary seats simply because the occupants hold certain offices or are too important to loose has become moribund and should be dispensed with forthwith.
9. The NDC must strongly consider the factors that go into the selection of their flagbearers and running mates, as well as how they package their manifestos to the electorate. Simply because the electorate is tired of the governing party is no guarantee that they ‘d vote for the opposing alternative.
10. I am very excited about one outcome from this year’s election. The increase in the NDC seats in Parliament will force the NPP to begin thinking through policies properly before rail-roading it through the House. By so doing, we should have better checks and balances in national governance. We saw a bit of this in Kufuor’s first term (104 and 92) and Atta Mills’first time (120 and 110) and it greatly forced the hand of government. From the way our Constitution gives so much leverage to the Executive, it is only these kinds of arrangements that can ensure a good check on the Executive.
11. Clearly the large size of government made very little impact on governance in my view and the President will help all of us and himself if he trims it back to the 70s to 80s number and rather concentrate on expertise and experience not party or individual loyalty.
12. The President will serve himself and Ghanaians well if he should keep out of his government anyone with presidential ambition (except the Vice President who constitutionally cannot be removed by President) for 2024. If he doesn’t, that is most likely to affect governance negatively and end up making him a lame-duck President for most part of the four years.
Certainly, the 2024 General Elections will be a very interesting spectacle that could go either way depending on how the two major parties deal with the above.
My dear friend,