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<p>The 2020 general elections in Ghana deserve critical attention for two main reasons: first, the theoretical implications and the insight it offers into the role of party performance in government, and internal party democracy in sustaining both executive and legislative dominance beyond the first four-year term. Contrary to expectations that voters would reward demonstrable stewardship, the 2020 electoral outcome demonstrates that protest voting could serve as a mechanism for expressing dissatisfaction with policy choices, implementation and candidate selection processes. Using a qualitative approach and drawing on both primary and secondary data, this article explored the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) performance in the 2020 elections. Despite its landslide victory in 2016, the NPP lost its parliamentary majority in 2020, with a contested victory in the presidential race, settled by the Supreme Court. The paper finds suggestive indications that factors such as weak party structures, imposition of parliamentary candidates, arrogance of power, perceived corruption, complacency, and disconnect from grassroots party structures may have contributed to the scenario likened to winning a war but losing the peace. While not claiming definitive causality, the findings in this article point to the potential electoral consequences of sidelining internal democratic processes. The paper recommends that, irrespective of an individual’s popularity or incumbency as MP or minister, political parties in Ghana must safeguard competitive parliamentary primaries to preserve legitimacy.</p>

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Victory with a taste of defeat: revisiting voter choices in Ghana’s 2020 elections

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月29日

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  • George Asekere

摘要

The 2020 general elections in Ghana deserve critical attention for two main reasons: first, the theoretical implications and the insight it offers into the role of party performance in government, and internal party democracy in sustaining both executive and legislative dominance beyond the first four-year term. Contrary to expectations that voters would reward demonstrable stewardship, the 2020 electoral outcome demonstrates that protest voting could serve as a mechanism for expressing dissatisfaction with policy choices, implementation and candidate selection processes. Using a qualitative approach and drawing on both primary and secondary data, this article explored the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) performance in the 2020 elections. Despite its landslide victory in 2016, the NPP lost its parliamentary majority in 2020, with a contested victory in the presidential race, settled by the Supreme Court. The paper finds suggestive indications that factors such as weak party structures, imposition of parliamentary candidates, arrogance of power, perceived corruption, complacency, and disconnect from grassroots party structures may have contributed to the scenario likened to winning a war but losing the peace. While not claiming definitive causality, the findings in this article point to the potential electoral consequences of sidelining internal democratic processes. The paper recommends that, irrespective of an individual’s popularity or incumbency as MP or minister, political parties in Ghana must safeguard competitive parliamentary primaries to preserve legitimacy.