National Democratic Reforms in Africa

Type Book Section - Two Decades of Liberal Democracy in Ghana: A Critical Political Economy Perspective
Title National Democratic Reforms in Africa
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 63-88
Publisher Springer
URL http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137518828_3
Abstract
Ghana’s transition to liberal democracy has encountered many challenges along the road. The most recent one is the petition filed by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the Supreme Court challenging the results of the 2012 presidential election, in which the incumbent president and candidate of National Democratic Congress Party (NDC), John Mahama, was declared the winner by the Ghana Election Commission. The eight month-long trial of the petition deepened the acrimonious political polarization of the country along NPP and NDC lines. The trial was so viciously and maliciously politicized in the media, with almost every decision of the judges given a political spin and tagged with either NDC or NPP biases, that some leading Ghanaians such as Mr. Kofi Annan, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, and the Justices of the Supreme Court trying the case had cause to express their worries about the rising political tension in the country because of the trial.

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