Party’s presidential primaries and the consolidation of democracy in Ghana’s 4th Republic

Abstract

Democracy under any system of rule is associated with vibrant political parties and credible elections. Both are indispensable in a representative democracy. The good conduct of elections within a political party promotes and consolidates democracy. Political parties in Ghana have suffered internal conflict resulting in factions, break-away, and the formation of new parties because of undemocratic party operations especially in the conduct of primaries. This act threatens the country's attempt to consolidate its democracy. Internal party reforms are adopted to ensure democratic practices and operations. The reforms include widening the electoral base of the party in the selection of candidates, simultaneous conduction of polls across constituencies, and restriction of candidates eligible for elections. These reforms are to reduce vote-buying, intimidation, physical assault, and fierce competition to enhance legitimisation of election results and the acceptability of candidates. The paper assessed how the various reforms adopted by the two major political parties in Ghana have influenced and legitimised the conduct of presidential primaries. The paper adopted a qualitative research design through interviews and reviewed extant literature to set the theoretical basis of the study. It is realised ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michael Amoako Addae is an Mphil candidate at the University of Ghana, Legon with the Department of Political Science. He holds a Bachelor in Arts (BA) degree from the same University. His research interest covers elections, governance, democracy, gender and national development. This paper was based on the author's research in shaping and contributing to effective party politics in Ghana. The work examines how political parties can contribute to the consolidation of democracy in Ghana.