The European Union Election Observation Mission Ghana has stated that there are few women representation in the Ghanaian political scene.
In a statement released by the union, it noted that “Women are significantly underrepresented in political life: the New Patriotic Party (NPP) fielded only 24 female candidates while the NDC ran with just 22 in 275 constituencies. Perceived traditional roles of women, and, often, a lack of financial resources, contribute to the problem.”
The observer mission, however, noted that it is a good thing that for the first time, one of the main political parties had a female running mate.
The EU EOM also stated that although the elections were generally peaceful and well-conducted, they noticed some flaws.
CANDIDATE REGISTRATION
They noted that the nomination fee for presidential and parliamentary candidates was unreasonably high.
“The nomination fee for presidential candidates was doubled to 100,000 GHS (14,160 EUR) in 2020. The fee for parliamentary candidates is 10,000 GHS (1,416 EUR). Given Ghana’s GDP per capita in 2019 was 11,541 GHS (1,634 EUR), the nomination fees for parliamentary candidates appear unreasonably high. Twenty of the 21 disqualifications of parliamentary candidates were reportedly due to unpaid fees. No lawsuits ensued from these disqualifications.”
MEDIA
The observer group noted that media operated in a free environment characterized by the heavy presence of partisan radio.
“However, EU EOM’s media monitoring shows that state-owned GTV favoured the NPP by allocating it 26.2 per cent of airtime in its election-related news and programmes, compared to 15.8 per cent allocated to the NDC.7 Furthermore, the NPP and its presidential candidate benefited from extensive additional coverage on GTV (22.1 per cent of airtime) through news and live broadcasts of inaugurations and projects launched by the President or government representatives, often including campaign songs and messages. Equitable electoral coverage was provided by state-owned Uniiq FM (34.2 and 28.6 percent of airtime allocated to NPP and NDC, respectively) and Daily Graphic (29.9 and 26.5 percent of space allocated to NPP and NDC, respectively).”