Violence Without Victory In Sub-Sahara Africa: A Muse Of Ghana’s Election 2020

Abstract

The aftermath of Ghana’s election 2020 witnessed series of protests mainly from supporters of the biggest opposition party (the NDC) instigated by party officialdom in various capacities across the country. The National Democratic Congress – the main opposition political party - described the outcome of the election of which they were declared losers by the Electoral Commission of Ghana as ‘flawed’ and ‘fictionalised’ in favour of the incumbent New Patriotic Party. This paper is underpinned by the theories of electoral violence and thus, it seeks to interrogate the alleged election fraud propagated by the Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress. It also interrogates why the party ab initio chose the pub-crawled, vitriol, viaduct and obstreperous street protests in spite of its notification of a legal challenge of the results at Ghana’s apex court? The paper argues that, the spontaneous street protests, the concomitant public nuisance and violent behaviour of party apparatchik’s angst Ghanaians and threatened the basic fundamentals of national security.