Inside Africa: Elections In Ghana Prove A New Trend In African Politics - Democracy.
In past African elections, stories of dishonesty and abuse have often been met with anger and revolt. The events that unfolded following Mozambique’s election are common after an unfair election, of which there are many in Africa’s independent history. But small waves in a different direction are becoming more and more frequent, motioning the tide may be turning. This week, they changed on Africa’s gold coast, in Ghana.
Nana Akufo-Addo had been president since 2017, when he and vice president Mahamudu Bawumia defeated the then-president of four years John Mahama. During their two terms they led the country through a global pandemic well, according to experts, and also reformed the country’s school system to give all senior high-schoolers access to free education.
While their leadership brought Akufo-Addo popularity, it failed to overshadow two key factors which lost his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), re-election. Mahamudu Bawumia, who has been vice-president for almost eight years, lost the election on the 7th of December to the predecessor John Mahama, who had run against the party in both elections since he was deposed, and finally won in what has been the largest margin in 24 years. He is the first president in Ghana’s history to serve two-consecutive terms, and his vice president, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang will be the first female politician to hold the position.
The landslide victory, which excited street celebrations across the country, is believed to lie in a low turnout from NPP voters. Rather than contest the outcome, or try to forge a different one as Mozambique’s FRELIMO party is accused of doing, Bawumia conceded defeat very quickly, stating he did so “to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country”. His acceptance of voters’ little confidence in the party’s ability to tackle Ghana’s economic crisis, which has been called the worst in a generation, is a noble show of functioning democratic politics.
Last time inflation soared in 2002, reforms to the central bank under the Bank of Ghana Act 612 allowed more powers in the institution’s implementation of monetary policy (the management of interest rates and the supply of money in the economy) and fiscal policy (the management of taxation and economic growth in the economy).
When inflation decreased from 30% in 2002 to 10% in 2007, the measures used by the central bank, which involved increased lending to the government, was believed to be an effective tool in managing the country’s economy. Economist Emmanuel Ameyaw however argues that the decrease in inflation in the early 2000s corresponds to an IMF-World Bank debt relief programme from the same period.
According to him, the central bank wanted to avoid curbing economic growth by raising interest rates - a measure which would decrease inflation but also mean less investment, consumption, and a weaker economic output. This meant they had to lend more to the government by borrowing money (37.9bn cedis in 2022, equivalent of $3.2 bn), which increases inflation. It explains why Ghana defaulted on its public debt in 2022, which grew to 92.7% of GDP, and alongside the pandemic caused a surge in the inflation rate to almost 40% in 2023.
However, high cost of living was not the only source of discontentment among many Ghanaians. The small country on Africa’s west coast has a social and environmental concern, commonly referred to as galamsey. It’s a dialectical mixture of the words ‘gather’ and ‘sell’ and refers to the extraction of Ghana’s princely resource: Gold - the largest export of the country. Ghana exports the most gold in Africa, and is among the largest producers in the world, exporting 138.7 tonnes in 2022.
Over a third of this gold is extracted by small-scale miners seeking fortune from the earth. They are over a million, and 85% of them are estimated to be mining illegally - on unauthorized lands, using unauthorised methods, not paying taxes on their extractions, or all three at the same time. This leads to devastated forests and ecosystems in many different parts of the country’s rich nature, which also yields Ghana’s second largest export: Cocoa.
The most pressing concern however, which WaterAid has called an ‘ecocide’, is the contamination of Ghana’s rivers with highly toxic mercury. Mercury and cyanide are used in the washing of excavated soil - this separates and extracts the gold. The leftover water is funnelled into nearby rivers. “Mercury can remain in water for up to 1000 years” says Dr George Manful, former senior official in Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency. For many communities, the threat of poisoning from local water sources has become an urgent issue.
Ghana’s government claimed in September that since 2021, 76 people were convicted of illegal mining (18 of which were foreign nationals). More than 850 are being prosecuted. When Akufo-Addo came to power, he vowed to clean the rivers, reclaim mined land, and put an end to illegal mining procedures. Critics say during his presidency, it got worse.
Exacerbation from Ghana’s economic crisis and the government’s failure to tackle galamsey are behind the change in politics. John Mahama, from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) targeted the country’s youth with goals to create a friendlier environment for small businesses and entrepreneurs, addressing concerns surrounding the fragile economy and unemployment. Out of the total 18.7 million voters, 10.3 million were between the ages of 18 and 35.
It is but one of the many elections in Africa this past year, where candidates have claimed victory by speaking to the hearts of the youth. Of the 12 votes, half saw total or partial shifts in political leadership. In Botswana, Mauritius, Senegal and the unrecognised state of Somaliland, governments were replaced by the opposition - they demonstrated a turn which favored candidates who addressed the youth and spoke of democratic and economic reforms which tackled corruption.
“There’s a sense that voters want to punish parties for failure to boost economies, create jobs and fight corruption”, Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research in Namibia, Graham Hopwood told Al Jazeera. Ghana’s recent election proves the trend. There is a political agenda that is working in Africa, and it is not the one usually associated with the continent.
Yet, when economic instability and corruption are regular problems for Africans, it is also easy for politicians to adopt the narrative of changing the status quo. In fact, it is a common spectacle. In southern Africa, parties which once ended colonialism and apartheid are today being criticised by young people, who identify less with that history. Opposition parties in South Africa and Namibia grew in this year’s elections. Despite the clear frustration, ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa vowed following his campaign that he had understood voters ‘clear message’ after a historically low turnout. The party remained in power. Whether the status quo has changed or not, is still to be found out.
Similarly, Mozambique’s violent unrest against the mainstay FRELIMO, which has now resulted in over 100 deaths, also points towards a less simple evolution in African politics. While democracy is evidently popular across Africa’s youth, it is not always easily attained. It is however just a matter of time - 70% of Africa is under the age of 30, so new ideas will only gain strength. For some, the path is longer and more fraught, than for others. Countries like Ghana can lead the way.
