THE basic law of the land is very clear on how power should be exercised after the conduct of national elections.
THE Constitution is unambiguous on who forms the government after the Electoral Commission (EC) has declared the results of a general election.
A presidential candidate who secures more than 50 per cent of the votes cast in an election is declared the president-elect; while by a simple majority a candidate wins a parliamentary seat.
These arrangements have worked well in our jurisdiction, albeit with a few bottlenecks, until the 2012 general election, the then presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and two others decided to contest the results of the presidential election in court.
ELSEWHERE, there is proportional representation that offers every political party a share of the parliamentary seats and a number of ministerial portfolios, depending on the number of votes it garnered at the polls.
THIS is not a scenario that Ghana has worked with before but this issue always pops up in discussions to find ways to carry everybody on board in the governance of the country.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the politics of winner-takes-all is aggravating the divisions in our society and even for the insignificant ‘spoils’ of election, party loyalty is a critical consideration.
FROM time immemorial, we have paid lip- service to the public declaration of the intentions of our presidents to run an “all-inclusive government” or be “father for all”, for which reason we have not been able to cement relations between members of the two major political parties.
THE Acheampong administration introduced the Union Government concept but the idea did not sit well with many Ghanaians, who rejected it in a referendum on March 30, 1978.
Since that infamous Union Government idea, some well-meaning Ghanaians have argued the good sides of the idea and proposed that the country tries the “Union Government” concept.
WE recall that in 2008, following what happened in Kenya in 2007, the idea of a power-sharing arrangement was suggested here in the event of any challenges afflicting the electoral process.
Here, again, the political class shot down the suggestion and so, it could not fly, in spite of the close outcome of the polls.
The extreme polarisation in the country has not helped in the productive fettering of ideas from all sources for the positive development of the country and thus affecting the collective mobilisation of resources by successive governments to create jobs and wealth.
THE consequences have been the growing poverty and unemployment levels in our society.
Consequently, many public-spirited people have suggested a departure from the winner-takes-all policy that has alienated about half of the population from the governance of the country.
WE cannot blame anybody for the present arrangement, since that is a creature of the Constitution. But we know that the legal framework is not cast in iron and so now that we have realised that the current arrangement is not the best for harnessing ideas for the governance of the country, we should review the law for the good of society.
TODAY believes that we have a glorious opportunity now to revisit the work of the Constitutional Review Committee to carry out reforms that would reflect the aspirations and the mood of the people. The tense situation in the country where a new government comes in and terminates old appointments and replace them with their sympathisers is primarily due to the winner-takes-all political environment.
WE seriously need an all-inclusive form of governance, a system that could bring all political forces together for the development of the country.
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