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Decentralization, as a policy option, has been on Ghana’s political agenda since independence. At the heart of Ghana’s current decentralization are the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) who serve as the principal representatives of the President at the local level. This study explores the preferred institutional arrangements for selecting MMDCEs that will make Ghana’s decentralization process more effective and responsive to local needs. The study is designed as a representative nationwide sample survey in which 2104 randomly-selected adults of voting age were the subjects. The quantitative data was complemented with 20 elite interviews. The majority of respondents (74%) asserted that MMDCEs should be popularly elected as opposed to the current arrangement where MMDCEs are appointed by the President. Interestingly, the majority of the respondents do not want the election to be on a partisan basis.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine lecturers' experiences of moonlighting in the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was used. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 purposively selected informants. Data were transcribed and analyzed thematically.FindingsThe findings are that moonlighting is common at GIMPA, and the institutional environment is conducive for the practice. Knowledge of the practice is unclear. However, moonlighting serves as a source of additional income for lecturers, which a significant majority describe as enabling their continuing employment at GIMPA, but many pointed out the negative effects as well. Lack of a policy to control the behavior has been cited as a reason for the problem, which left lecturers to self-determine what to do. Moonlighting practice is affecting the quality of teaching and support to students by the lecturers.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample of the respondents who participated in the study is small and limited to 18. Their views cannot be generalized to all higher education institutions. But, the results show the seriousness of the problem and its implications.Practical implicationsMoonlighting is prevalent in GIMPA. It suggests that employees of other public higher education institutions are no immune to it.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to explore the practice of moonlighting in a quasi-public higher education institution in Ghana. It has added to the empirical literature on the practice and the effects on the institution.

What determines the vote choice in Ghana? This paper examines this question using a data set on voting behaviour generated from a nationwide survey of 2042 voters from the ten regions of Ghana based on six national elections held between 1992 and 2012. The results based on descriptive analyses and logistic regressions indicate that political parties tackle substantive issues during African elections, but generally voice them through valence appeals rather than by staking out distinct positions. Further, the results show that campaign message and the ethnicity of the presidential candidate matter in the vote choice. It is worth noting, however, that of the seventeen factors identified by respondents as most important, ethnicity ranked only 14th. This finding suggests that the declarative information of respondents is not consistent with their real intentions. Overall, the findings of the study show that both patronage politics and programmatic policies matter in winning elections. Accordingly, politicians need to focus on enhancing the credentials they bring to the political arena and improve their image in terms of how best they are able to achieve the public good.

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