Road to Election 2024: Ghana’s elusive Third Force - Has duopoly come to stay?

Throughout Ghana’s 4th Republic democratic dispensation, two parties have battled each other for the spoils during elections, with one of the two winning the slot to rule the country at different periods.

Since 1992 when the country returned to democratic governance after a decade of military rule under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), it has either been the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in power.

So unwittingly, Ghana has followed the trend as pertains to the United States of America (USA), where it has either been the Democrats or the Republicans in power, every four years.

Coincidentally too, both countries have held elections in the same year during the period, although the USA has held theirs in November while Ghana has held its election in December.

In the case of Ghana, the NDC which was created out of the PNDC, was the first to grab the reins of power for two four-year terms from 1992 to 2000. Thereafter, the John Agyekum Kufuor-led NPP wrested power in the 2000 elections and also stayed in power for two terms, relinquishing the seat to the John Evans Atta Mills-led NDC in 2008.

Despite President Mills’ demise before the completion of his first term in 2012, the NDC held onto the seat for a second term which ended in 2016.

The ding-dong battle for Jubilee House, the seat of government, continued, with the NPP staging a comeback after its 2016 to 2020 term. The leader of the party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, went on to win another presidential term in the 2020 election.

So in effect, both the NDC and NPP have enjoyed 16 years apiece in government, enjoying eight years in power at each showing and alternating the other since the country took to the democratic path in 1992.

Will the alternating trend continue? Who will come out victorious in the upcoming election? Does any of the two parties have the capacity to break the eight as has been championed in the run-up to the upcoming election? These and several other questions are begging to be answered, but only time can provide the much-needed responses.

Third Force

However, as the two-horse race continues, there has been talk and attempts at finding an alternative party to the NPP and NDC – what has become commonly referred to as a third force.

So far though, this desire to find a strong party that could become the people’s choice other than the duopoly of NPP and NDC has only remained a discussion and wishful thinking.

Some political watchers have emphasised that the country is not ready to have a third force, as the other parties are so weak in all departments of the game that they pose no threat to either of the two main contenders – the NPP and NDC.

But be that as it may, at all the country’s eight elections held so far in the 4th Republic, there have been other parties that have tried to matter or count. Ultimately though divisions in some of them, sometimes when elections are so close, have been their bane and robbed them of any muscle to become contenders.

Breakups, offshoots

The political party that has been mostly affected by these breakups during each election has been the party of the first President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), which was also formed out of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), of which he was general secretary in June 1949.

So as if it is in its DNA, the CPP has since the ousting of Dr Nkrumah from power, experienced a broken front that has further weakened the party’s ability to win an election.

The National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), an offshoot of the CPP founded by Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, was a political party formed after the ban on party politics was lifted in May 1969, during the 2nd Republic (1969–1972).

 It was, however, dissolved together with all other political parties in Ghana following the coup d'état that replaced the Busia government with the National Redemption Council (NRC) led by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

Enter the 3rd Republic and Imoro Igala would found the People's National Party (PNP) from the CPP/NAL, with the slogan “Eyε Abε” and would go on to win the election with Dr Hilla Limann as President from 1979 to 1981.

President Limann’s tenure was after and before two military coups by Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings’s Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) on June 4, 1979, and Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) on December 31, 1981, making him the only president in the 3rd Republic.

4th republic

The 4th Republic has witnessed the most splintering or breakaway from the CPP by members who have formed other parties that have laid claim to having the same Nkrumahist ideology as the CPP.

The People’s Heritage Party (PHP) founded by Lt Gen. Emmanuel Erskine, was one of the eight political parties formed when the ban on party politics was lifted in 1992.

However, in 1993, the PHP merged with the National Independence Party (NIP), another party that claimed to be Nkrumahist in ideology, to form the People's Convention Party (PCP).

The NIP which was founded by multimillionaire entrepreneur Kwabena Darko, then popularly referred to as “Akokᴐ Baatan” because he was a poultry farmer, was also formed in 1992 in the run-up to the inauguration of the 4th Republic of Ghana.

Joining forces with the PHP after it came fourth in the 1992 election with 2.8 per cent of the total votes cast, the NIP thus ceased to exist. It became subsumed in the PCP in 1993 in the first year of the 4th Republic.

PNC

After being kicked out of office in 1981, Dr Limann founded another political party, the People's National Convention (PNC) after constitutional rule was restored in the country in 1992, based on the ideals of the first party, the PNP.

The PNC went steady even after the founder’s demise on January 23, 1998, contesting all national elections after the inception of the 4th Republic, apart from the 1992 parliamentary election, which was boycotted along with other opposition parties.

At the elections held on December 7, 2004, the party was part of the Grand Coalition, which won four out of 230 seats. Edward Mahama, candidate of the Grand Coalition, won 1.9 per cent of the votes in the presidential elections.

At the next election in December 2008, the PNC won two seats in Parliament and for the fourth time in a row, Dr Edward Nasigri Mahama was the presidential candidate, garnering 0.8 per cent of the votes.

In the 2012 election, the PNC fielded Hassan Ayariga who had been elected earlier in 2011 by the party to contest that presidential election on the ticket of the party. He was also able to get 0.22 per cent of the votes.

That notwithstanding, having failed to make any meaningful impact in the 2012 election, the PNC elected new officials in 2015 for the 2016 election, with Dr Mahama becoming its presidential candidate yet again and General Secretary Bernard Mornah becoming the chairman.

Mr Ayariga who led the party in the 2012 election quit the party after losing to Dr Mahama and decided to start his party, the All People's Congress (APC), with its motto as “All-inclusive governance.”

However, just two months before the 2016 general election, then Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei, announced that 13 presidential candidates, including Hassan Ayariga, had been disqualified from standing as presidential candidates in the December election due to problems with the nomination documents they had filed with the commission.

PPP

In 2012 Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, a businessman, politician and former presidential candidate for the CPP during the 2008 general election, also broke off to form the Progressive People's Party (PPP) which had as its motto “Prosperity in Peace.”

The PPP polled 64,267 (0.58 per cent) popular votes in the 2012 general election with Dr Nduom as a flag bearer and Brigitte Dzogbenuku as the running mate, making it the third-largest party and the second-largest opposition party in Ghana.

The NDC’s John Dramani Mahama won that election with 5,573,572 votes (50.63 per cent), while the NPP’s Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo placed second with 5,263,286 of the ballots cast (47.81 per cent).

But that was as far as the PPP could go, as, despite the vigorous effort it put into the 2016 election, there was no marked change, although it garnered 106,092 (one per cent) of the total votes cast.

The popular refrain chanted by presidential candidate Dr Nduom on campaign platforms was “Yere sesam”, to wit we are bringing about change. That change, however, proved elusive and never came despite his announcement that it would be his last time as the PPP flag bearer if he was not voted into power.

Prior to that, the further weakened CPP nominated running mate to Dr Nduom in the 2008 election, Agronomist Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster as its flag bearer to contest the 2012 election on its ticket.

It is, therefore, no wonder that the CPP had a very poor showing in the 2012 election with its presidential candidate only managing 20,109 (0.18 per cent) of the total votes cast and placing sixth out of eight candidates that year.

NDC, NPP

The NDC and the ruling NPP have had their fair share of breakaways but those setbacks have not as much as affected them.

Notable splits within the NDC have come from former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and one-time Attorney General, Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, who left the party to form the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) in 2006 with “Service in Freedom” as its motto.

Leading member of the NDC, Augustus "Goosie" Obuadum Tanoh, also left to found the National Reform Party (NRP) and contested for this party in the 2000 presidential election, but only managed 1.1 per cent of the total votes cast.

The NPP is the latest to suffer a desertion by a leading member. Former Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, announced his resignation from the party on September 25, 2023, after losing the party's flagbearership race.

He has since formed the Movement for Change (M4C) political party which he leads and formed an alliance named the Alliance for Revolutionary Change (ARC).
Members of the alliance include the Founder of the National Interest Movement (NIM), Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster; the Ghana First Coalition led by Dr Samuel Noi Mensah; the Union Government, founded by Akwasi Addai Odike and the Ghana National Party, founded by Sam Ofori Ampofo.

The others are the Ghana Green Party, founded by Reverend Stephen Ayensu; Third Force Movement, founded by Augustina Cudjoe; and Non-Aligned Voters Movement, founded by Kwofie Beni Bengor; Crusaders Against Corruption Ghana, Emmanuel Wilson and former National Second Vice Chairman of the People’s National Convention, Henry Asante.

Also joining the fray to make a case for a third force is Businessman, Nana Kwame Bediako, popularly known as Freedom Jacob Caesar or Cheddar.

He has formed a movement called the New Force and has declared his intention to stand for president with several billboards mounted across the country advertising his political ambition.

Howbeit, with the Alliance for Revolutionary Change and the New Force so sure to join traditional small parties such as the CPP, PNC and the PPP in this year’s election, it is almost certain that pinpointing a vibrant third force will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.