Ghana gains

The victory of Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor in the December 28 Presidential poll is the first time Ghana has seen a peaceful and non-controversial political transition. M. S. PRABHAKARA reports.

THE VICTORY of Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the December 28 Presidential poll run-off, defeating Professor John Evans Atta Mills, the country's Vice- President and candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), marks the end of nearly two decades of dominance of Ghana's politics by the President, Mr. Jerry John Rawlings. This is the first time that Ghana has had a peaceful and non- controversial political transition, with one democratically- elected Government being voted out to make way for another led by a leader of the Opposition.

The run-off became necessary since none of the seven candidates in the first round of the poll on December 7 obtained the required 50 per cent plus one valid votes nationally. Mr. Kufuor also led in that round, obtaining 48.2 per cent of the votes as against the 44.5 per cent obtained by Mr. Atta Mills. He cleared the hurdle in the run-off, obtaining 56.90 per cent of the valid votes as against the 43.10 per cent secured by Mr. Atta Mills. Mr. Kufuor also obtained a clear majority in six of the ten Regions (Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra and Western), apart from making huge gains in Northern Region, a known NDC stronghold, where he very nearly edged out Mr. Atta Mills obtaining 48.90 per cent of the vote. This was in sharp contrast to the NPP's poor performance in the first round when its share of the presidential vote, despite a higher national turnout, was just about half of what it was in the run-off, with Mr. Kufor winning only in one of the 23 parliamentary constituencies, and only three NPP candidates being returned to Parliament.

Having served two terms as President, Mr. Rawlings could not under Ghana's Constitution seek a third term, and so was not a candidate. Nevertheless, the poll outcome has to be seen as also a verdict on the two decades of the Rawlings era. To the extent that his Vice-President and the NDC, a party he had created whose origins go back to the Provisional National Defence Council in whose name he had launched his `second revolution' of December 31, 1981, lost, the verdict went against Mr. Rawlings.

However, as so often is the case, the defeat may also turn out to be his moment of triumph. For, even if questions may be raised about his political legacy, his economic legacy is now a virtually unchallenged national agenda. Mr. Rawlings who promised revolutionary changes and for a while even appeared to defy all established precedents, changed tack less than two years into power. This is acknowledged in the very first sentence of Ghana- Vision 2020, a document prepared by the National Development Planning Commission: ``Since 1983, the Government of Ghana, with the support of the international donor community, has been implementing its Economic Recovery Programme and its accompanying structural adjustment programmes''. While the two-volume document says that that these ``necessarily short term policies'' are not designed to ensure long term prosperity, the supposedly more comprehensive `Vision' is anchored in the same perspective.

Despite all the campaign rhetoric of ``a change with a difference'', there is little that Mr. Kufuor can do except continue on the same path. Such indeed is the unchallenged assertiveness of the new economic orthodoxy of the market, though in Ghana as elsewhere these polices have spread economic ruin. The pathetic state of the national currency, Cedi, whose value vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar went down in the course of just the last one year from about 3,500 to 7,000, is only the most visible indication of what these policies have done.

Mr. Kufuor, to go by his pronouncements since his election, is unlikely to question, much less repudiate, this part of his legacy. However, having cut his political teeth under the late Dr. Kofi Busia, the political foe of Kwame Nkrumah and the architect of the so-called Second Republic (1969-72), he may be less outspoken than his predecessor on matters about which the West, the U.S. in particular, is especially sensitive. But then, Mr. Rawlings's words never broke any bones.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Dealing for a deal