An NPP supporter at a party rally.
By: Etse Sikanku Published: July 31, 2009 9:14 PM CDT
Ghana’s main opposition party - the NPP - recently announced that no more than three persons will be allowed to contest the party’s flagbearership. In my view, this is nothing but an act of desperation by a party struggling to re-assert itself after a bruising election.
Against the backdrop of recent praise — perhaps exaggerated — for Ghana’s democratic record, the NPP’s desperado act is quite disappointing for a number of reasons. Here’s why.
I think the NPP’s actions is based on a flawed assumption that having just three candidates instead of say 17 will lead to less division within the party. This assumption is incorrect because the major division within their party was between two camps: the Kyeremaneteng and the Akuffo-Addo camps. Unless the NPP wants to adopt NDC’s fabled “Swedru declaration” where only one candidate is anointed by the party, there are always going to be competing factions. If party executives are so concerned about numerous contestants they could as well go ahead and appoint a single unopposed candidate by “consensus.”
When I first heard about suggestions for limiting the number of people who will contest the party’s flagbearership, my immediate reaction was to dismiss it as an idea so out of sync with the very fundamentals of democracy that it will never see daylight. Apparently, some in the NPP and, I guess even outside, think otherwise.
But this is Politics 101: the notion of representation, participation, and pluralism are of enormous value to any democratic system anywhere. In fact, it will not be wrong to say they’re the backbone of such systems; thus I wonder why the NPP wants to put a cap on people’s right to freely contest.
We can all give any number of reasons why we like or dislike the NPP, but there’s an underlying truth to all this chaos: The NPP is most appealing when it’s most competitive. I absolutely agree with Dr Gesika Agambilla one of Kufuor’s longest serving ministers who once stated in an on op-ed piece that, “If, it ain't broke, don't fix it.”
Instead of resisting such competition, the NPP should embrace it, and encourage healthy debate during primaries. The current decision may sound good for the short term but means nothing if the NPP is serious about its long term viability.
For the sake of Ghana, I hope the NPP, NDC and other parties thrive as political institutions.
This is because while democracy is the ultimate goal, it is only a by-product of well established and flourishing party systems.
Very thought provoking and a good piece of advice for those politicians.
ReplyDeleteThanks Selorm, our party systems need to be strong and rigorous because like Anna Grzymala-Busse said in her book "Rebuilding Leviathan" "Political parties are state builders...and we need to re-think states as a set of institutions that emerge from political party competition"
ReplyDeleteThus when merit rather than loyalty is emphasized it also reduces opportunities for clientlism and predation of the state. Afterall, the goal of pluralism is to ensure competition and contestation which eventually leads to representation and constraint--all necessary ingredients of any respectable democracy.