Winner takes all bane of good governance

While the country has received global acclaim for being an oasis of peace in a troubled sub-region because it has stayed the democratic path of governance for decades, our current system – winner takes all, has become anathema to our development.

Currently, the country’s 1992 Constitution makes it right for a political party that wins power to control all positions of governance, including state institutions and sectors that are more technical and professional in character than political, leaving out members of even the largest opposition party that polls over 45 per cent at the elections.

It means that the running of the country at any time is in the hands of about half of the country – supporters and sympathisers of the ruling party.

Governance is thus skewed to benefit the half of the country’s electorate, while the other half are forced to tag along because they more or less have to keep their expertise or knowledge to themselves and can only grumble when they see things go wrong.

All heads of state institutions and governing boards are appointed by the ruling government or party, a reason why almost everything, including discussions on issues of national importance, have become politicised over the years.

We have become so partisan in our politics, primarily because our constitution has made it so, and elections have become a ‘do-and-die’ affair, because it is the winner that gets to control EVERYTHING.

Sadly, it is political party foot soldiers who are put in positions of authority once their party comes to power, even though they may have no knowledge in the field or sector. They get all the juicy contracts whether they have what it takes to execute the works or not.

It is why most of our institutions are not functioning properly or are being run down. The most qualified are sidelined in appointments because they do not belong to the party in government or they do not share in their ideals.

For instance, what has the running of a medical facility got to do with being a member of a political party? Yet the chief executive officers of hospitals are appointed by the President because the Constitution has made it so.

Why should that not be left in the hands of the Ghana Health Service and appointing the heads of other institutions left in the hands of the professional bodies overseeing such institutions?

Sadly, even the security services that are meant to be neutral have been tagged as being political all the time, because the constitution gives powers to the President to appoint service commanders, albeit in consultation with the Council of State.

The district chief executives are also appointed by the President so even at the local level the people do not have a say in who they believe can lead them in  their development drive.

If our democracy should become meaningful and impact our development as a country, we need an immediate review of our constitution as has been proposed by many well-meaning citizens over the years.

Indeed, it was the need to rectify all anomalies that led to the inauguration of a Constitutional Review Consultative Committee (CRCC) in April 2023, to primarily review the 2010 Constitution Review Commission Report, among others.

As stated rightly by political scientist and governance expert, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, in an interview with the Daily Graphic recently, the winner-takes-all system is "an exclusive system" that leads to tension and divisions.

The Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, also stated at the stakeholders’ consultation to validate the preliminary report of the CRCC last Saturday that doing away with the winner-takes-all provision would foster a greater sense of patriotism among Ghanaians to support any government that won an election; and we could not agree more with him.    

The Daily Graphic also believes that if the winner-takes-all principle is properly resolved at a proposed national dialogue, we will not only help keep the unity and cohesion of the country, but we will be ensuring an inclusive government where only the best will be appointed to key positions based on expertise and not party affiliation.

The time to reform our political system is now, so we continue to be the darlings of democracy and good governance the world knows us to be.

Moreover, we cannot ensure successful development with a system that creates so much division and extreme partisanship, even when we ought to be nationalistic.