ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT ELECTORAL VIOLENCE IN GHANA
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ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT ELECTORAL VIOLENCE IN GHANA
ABSTRACT
The role of the media in raising awareness of electoral violence in Ghana was investigated in this study. The research was conducted at All Nations University in Ghana. A descriptive and explanatory technique was used in the investigation. The researcher employed the purpose sampling strategy to pick 100 respondents from several institutes at All Nations University in Ghana.
As a data collection tool, questionnaires were employed. Within a fair time frame, one hundred (100) questionnaire papers shall be supplied and administered. The study’s findings revealed that the media does not justify the issue of riggers, and that the manner they present election violence exaggerates people’s fear and threat.
According to the poll, a bigger percentage believes that the media should provide proper distribution, good reporting, balanced and accurate reporting on electoral violence.
The study advised that political education be provided in order to instill new values and ethics in the minds of the people, which will effect the family, peer group, and society as socialisation agents. The ultimate goal is to create a new political and democratic order for the electorate.
CHAPITRE ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
Elections are critical to the survival, stability, and growth of democracies, and political parties play an important role in such democracies. Representative democracy was fully utilised in all of these elections to determine political power.
Regular elections are a prerequisite for representative democracy. Participation, accountability, openness, and responsibility are also important components of representative democracy. Elections are thus held on a regular basis to realise the aims of democracy. 2008 (Abbass).
Looking back at Ghana’s democratic past, it is clear that election violence has had a negative impact on the country, creating severe political upheaval and effectively ending democracy.
Ghana, like many African countries, faced similar political pressures for reforms (Bratton and Van de Walle, 1994; Kumah-Abiwu, 2011; Frempong and Asare, 2017). The country began its democratic reforms in the early 1990s, after the military regime of Jerry John Rawlings succumbed to intense domestic and international pressures for reforms (Bratton and Van de Walle, 1994; Kumah-Abiwu, 2011).
While the transitional period of the 1990s was a significant moment in Ghana’s political/electoral history, Frempong and Asare (2017, p.1) argue that the country had “a long rendezvous with elections that dates back to the 1950s, but its blushes with democratic governance had been unimpressive until the Fourth Republic.”
In other words, Frempong and Asare’s (2017) reasoning is that Ghana’s Fourth Republic can be compared to other countries. However, it is not strange that these researchers made that observation. Indeed, the successful multiparty elections held in Ghana for more than 25 years reinforce the compelling argument.
In reality, the impressive idea or argument appears to be consistent with Bratton’s (1998) assessment of Africa’s political reforms in the 1990s as substantial. He describes the significant idea’s aspects from two angles.
First, the multiparty elections held across Africa, including Ghana, in the early 1990s not only marked a significant break from the previous trend of military (coup d’état) succession of power,
but the “founding elections” of the 1990s also introduced a transparent system of leadership succession in which authoritarian regimes were peacefully removed from power through competitive multiparty elections (Bratton, 1998).
Second, across Africa, including Ghana, political changes centred on multiparty elections drew widespread support and enthusiasm from citizens, resulting in high voter turnout at elections. According to Gyekey-Jandoh (2017, p.13), many Africans have created a widespread consensus that “military rule should be a thing of the past.”
Perhaps the frequent manipulation of election results, in the backdrop of rising electoral violence (Danso and Lartey, 2012; Kumah-Abiwu, 2017), explains transitional democracies’ fears about elections and democratisation. Elections, as Rapoport and Weinberg (2000) suggest, can be used to silence firearms (military coups),
but ballots or elections have also been used to provoke bullets (macro-level conflicts) in various African countries since the 1990s transition period. In essence, one can wonder if multiparty elections benefit or harm Africa’s growing democracies.
This is where Lindberg’s (2006a) book, Democracy and Elections in Africa, comes in handy, as it provides new insights into the effort to better understand multiparty elections and democratisation in Africa.
While aware of the problems and challenges confronting the conduct of multiparty elections, particularly during the transitional era of the 1990s, Lindberg’s (2006a) work has revealed that multiparty elections serve purposes other than transitioning from authoritarian regimes to democratic systems of government.
Repeated multiparty elections, even if faulty, serve as a method for building transitional democracies, according to Lindberg (2006a). This conceptualization of elections appears to differ from the pessimistic perspective of African elections.
Although Ghana’s record in conducting multiparty elections since the adoption of the Fourth Republican Constitution in 1992 has been lauded for the successes achieved over the last 25 years (Owusu-Mensah, 2016; Asante and Asare, 2017), we should also note that Ghana’s electoral landscape has been characterised by electoral irregularities and acts of election-related violence (Danso and Lartey, 2012).
The article’s central question is: To what extent is Ghana’s democratic growth shaped by repeated multiparty elections, despite significant electoral errors or defects? For the analyses, we use Lindberg’s (2006a) theoretical idea (democraticness of elections) to investigate this research puzzle. The article is divided into three sections.
The first section addresses the key features of Lindberg’s (2006a) theory or conceptual idea and its relevance to African debates on elections and democratisation. The second section combines the literature on multiparty elections with the theoretical tenets in our assessments of Ghana’s political scene since 1992.
This section delves deeper into Ghana’s election successes, focusing on major state players who influence election outcomes. The Electoral Commission (EC), civil society organisations, and other state institutions are investigated.
The third and final section uses the literature and the six conceptual elements of Lindberg’s (2006b) concept to examine whether Ghana’s repeated multiparty elections and the role of key state actors (e.g., the EC, civic society groups, the judiciary, and the media) involved in the electoral process help or hinder the country’s democratic advancement.
The paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, we re-categorized and systematically integrated the six conceptual tenets of Lindberg’s (2006b) theory with the literature to determine whether Ghana’s efforts at democratic development through repeated elections, while deficient in some ways, have contributed to the advancement of the country’s democracy.
Second, we enlarged on Lindberg’s (2006b) theoretical views by presenting the role of domestic, continental, and global election monitoring agencies in Ghana’s elections and democratic growth. We conclude by emphasising the argument that,
while flawed, the concept of repetitive elections, as articulated by Lindberg (2006a; 2006b) in his works, is useful in our attempt to better understand how Ghana’s repetitive multiparty elections have positively shaped the country’s democratic consolidation since 1992.
According to Ugiagbe (2010), electoral violence is frequently recorded in Ghana and manifests in many forms during the three (3) electoral stages, namely pre-election, election, and post-election.
In Ghana, electoral violence has two main dimensions: physical and psychological. Electoral violence includes assault, arson, vote box snatching and stuffing, as well as murder/assassination. He went on to say that electoral violence, among other things, took almost 11,000 lives in Ghana between 1999 and 2006.
Electoral violence can result in casualty counts that exceed the threshold for civil war within days or weeks; when this happens, it can erase years of peacekeeping and development effort, damage democratic institutions, and possibly spark civil war.
Given the substantive importance of electoral violence as a problem, academic researchers must have a clear understanding of its prevalence, causes, and dynamics, as well as what can be done to prevent it.
1 The study of electoral violence has grown out of two largely independent streams in political science – the literature on conflict and political violence on the one hand, and the literature on electoral misconduct on the other.
Politically, violence has harmed the country’s democratic foundation. Although it is an accepted reality that violence is an unavoidable part of human existence (Ayene Akeke 2008).
According to Iwu (2010), despite Ghana’s acknowledged resilience and reasonable economic strength, many decades of existence under dictatorship, with the unrestrained primitive accumulation of wealth that came with military regimes, left the society with powerful political interests and cleavages that could easily undermine electoral democracy processes if care was not taken.
However, the sustainability of democracy in Ghana has always been hampered by crises, uncertainty, turmoil, anxieties, terror, and insecurity. It is an unavoidable reality that in the 54 years since 13 elections have been held, conflict reading situations have played a key role in those elections. (2014) Mgbachi et al.
Abbass (2005) quotes extensively: “Elections in Ghana since independence have proven to be a serious political liability, causing serious political turmoil and threatening the survival of corporate Ghana.”
According to Abbass (2008), who cited Ake (2001), Adekaye (1989), and Nnoli (1987), the election season in Ghana is best described as warfare, with unparalleled political thuggery and unbridled violence, characterised by wanton devastation of lives and property.
Kolaowole (1988) also documents that the near state of anarchy that prevailed in the country in 1965 aYear 1967 was the result of unprecedented electoral violence in the western region perpetrated by intra-party squabble within the Action group (AG),
in which houses were burned, property was destroyed, human beings were murdered in cold blood, and there was complete breakdown of law and order. As a result, this became the immediate cause of the military’s first foray into national politics.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The occurrence of election violence is a fundamental challenge for the survival of democracy. This violence undermines peaceful coexistence, law and order, and security; it works against the consolidation of democracy.
This, in turn, has an impact on the nation’s social and economic well-being, creating imbalances or instances of structural violence (Galtung 1969; 167-191), which can lead to intensified conflict, as was the case with the Biafran war.
Iwu (2004) noticed that electoral violence occurs when the election process is regarded as unfair, irresponsive, or corrupt, and stakeholders are encouraged to go outside the established standards to achieve their goal.
Critical scholars and political analysts such as Kolewale (1988) and Duley (1979) have persistently remarked that Ghana’s election politics have not been encouraging.
Electoral politics has always been a cause of unrest, irrational behaviour, and political instability. In other words, elections have always been accompanied by the dissolution of the political regime.
Furthermore, among these issues is the detrimental and disastrous consequence of election violence, which also threatens the durability of democracy.
Furthermore, Pruitt and Kim (2004; 109) claimed that election violence is likely to develop in hostile motives such as retribution in political opponents, which could lead to conflict escalation. This could explain why practically all Ghanaian political groups are implicated in electoral violence.
1.3 The study’s purpose
The overarching goal of this research is to look into the function of the media in raising awareness regarding electoral violence in Ghana.
The following are the study’s particular objectives:
To educate the audience and demonstrate how the media has influenced rigger assaults.
To determine whether the media has a beneficial or harmful impact on people.
To observe if the media is publicising the riggers for their own benefit, which is attracting more viewers.
To investigate the causes and consequences of election violence on the people, government, and economy.
To observe how the media has aided the administration in combating electoral violence.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions will be considered for the purposes of this study.
Isn’t the way the media reports electoral violence exaggerating the public’s threat and fear?
What are the consequences of the media’s anti-electoral violence crusade?
What roles should the media play in combating electoral violence?
How much electoral violence is reported in the media?
1.5 Significance of the research
This research study is significant on two levels; it is theoretically and empirically significant.
In theory, the research will benefit academics and the growth of knowledge. The study is expected to add to current literature on election violence and the preservation of democracy, therefore examining and motivating further research from students and researchers.
The study will empirically benefit policymakers and stakeholders in the political and electoral processes. It will be extremely beneficial to the government and the independent national electoral commission (INEC).
The study’s conclusions will be a true, trustworthy, and functional policy input for the government, as they will help to propose solutions for improving Ghana’s electoral process.
1.6 Scope of The Study
This study focuses on the influence of the media in raising awareness regarding electoral violence in Ghana. The research focuses on the 2016 presidential election.
1.7 limitations of The study
However, the research has certain limitations, which are as follows:
Time: The researcher’s time allotted for the study was a key constraint because the researcher had to mix other academic work with the study.
Finance: The researcher’s financial resources during the course of the study do not allow for broader coverage because the researcher has other academic bills to pay.
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