Ben Durham

11/30/16
Dr. Plageman
An African Election

During todays class we watched Jarreth Merzs 2011 documentary, An African

Election, in the hopes of better understanding government complexities but more
specifically how democracy functions in Ghana. The uht-most important insight that
Merzs documentary offers is that democracy is a learning process for new governments
in Africa. The power to vote and be individually represented in democracy is unequivocal
and Ghanas 2008 elections process is proof that every vote matters. It is indeed arrogant
and lazy too say that Ghanaians and their tendencies are the reasons why democracy has
struggled. The fact is that not every government can function exactly the same, you
cannot apply a democracy formula that will lead to prosperity and growth for every
nation.
Recognizing that there are imperfections in government is not hard to do,
however bringing change to those certain imperfections such as corruption and fraud is
much more difficult to manage. Being such a pivotal point in the nations history, the 2008
elections proved to be very strenuous on the country of Ghana. There was essentially a
two party competition, like those in the United States, which included the NDC (National
Democratic Congress) and the NPP (National Patriotic Party). Both the NDC and NPP
promised the same reparations to critical areas of the country including free secondary
schooling, infrastructure development, development of industrializing (technology and
science; pertaining to many professional fields of work), food security, health care, and
employment. However, neither party could gain any real lead in popular vote. The
elections were a tie and an election run-off was set. Being a fragile country in nature, this
election tie surfaced a lot of distrust in the Election Commission and in both parties. At
this point in the film I began to feel as if the normal election process was more
professional, more civil, safer, and overall represented something more similar to the
voting process in the United States than the post election run-off process and
campaigning that both parties reverted to after the tie. As a whole, the entire country was
on high alert for fraud surrounding the polling stations during the election run-off voting
days. Violence began to break out as the allegations of fraud and thievery surfaced,
though the nation waited anxiously for results. Tensions reached an all-time high as
Ghana was on the brink of civil war and chaos during the announcement of the election
run-off results. The results were so close again that the Elections Commission decided to
put the result at the hands of the Tain constituency whom are peoples who inhabit remote
Ghana.

Merzs insight on how African nations have constructed and reshaped democracy
to fit their own circumstances and needs, as said perfectly by Dr. Plageman, is so
important because shes able to visually show the audience how complex a democratic
election process really is and how a conventional democracy doesnt work for countries
like Ghana.