Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and political analyst, Dr Kingsley Adjei has advised that the concept of Proportional Representation (PR) should be firmly established in Ghana’s political space in order to reduce vigilantism activities during elections.
According to him, PR sharply contrasts the ‘Winner takes it all’ system, as it (PR) gives the opportunity for political candidates to still have some form of control even if they lose elections, once they are able to meet a vote target.
“The solution has to be within the constitution, an amendment of the constitution, to bring about what I may refer to as Proportional Representation (PR). In Proportional Representation, we are not looking at the ‘winner takes all’, we are looking at a threshold of votes, and a percentage … you will get something to do in government.
An opponent may get more than 40% votes and still be in the house. So the next election, the person will do all in his power to win. But if we had a threshold that if you get 40% of the votes, you should be allowed or you should be given a seat in government, in parliament something like that … that we are not competing, we are only competing with numbers. That if you can get up to 40% you are also there. This is what is done in Belgium, other places,” he said in an interview with GhanaWeb on July 22, 2020.
He added that the ‘winner takes all’ system in Ghana’s politics should be scraped out because it goes as far as influencing the survival of people and as such, they are put in a position to do whatever it takes to ensure that their government gains or maintain political power.
“If you and I were to do a research from Kumasi to Accra or from Accra to Takoradi, you will note that all those who are now operating the toll booths, all those who are now operating the markets and several other shops, even toilets are NPP sympathizers. When they won, they shut all the NDC people who are there. If the NDC wins, that is what is going to happen, and this is within the framework of the ‘winner takes all’. These are conventions, they are not found in any book but they will force you out and this could result into conflicts,” he concluded.
Dr Kingsley Adjei, Political analyst