Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Isaac Owusu-Mensah

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Enhancing Quality Electoral Governance for Democratic Consolidation in Ghana’s Fourth Republic

Abstract

Ghana has made significant progress with democratic governance since returning to multiparty politics in 1992. Since then, competitive election has been the driving force behind its journey to democratic institutionalization. Yet what has obscured scholarly analysis is the grandiose web of activities that underpins and sustains the overall institutional framework of which voting and electoral competition occurs. It notes how Ghana’s electoral process and administration have been largely shaped by the embedded rules formulated, executed and adjudicated disputes arising within the electoral game. The rule-bound system, which defines and directs the electoral process and its management has fostered transparency, inclusive participation, trust and confidence of stakeholders in the electoral process and served as the vehicle for institutionalizing Ghana’s electoral democracy. Despite the rule-embedded institutional framework of the electoral process architecture, certain dimensions of it have failed to secure legitimacy/credibility of the elections. Reforms that innovate appropriate technological and other normative measures to build electoral governance’s capacity to produce credible election process and outcome will deepen the institutionalization of Ghana’s electoral democracy.

Bio

Professor Isaac Owusu-Mensah is the Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon. He previously served as Director of Research at the Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana and as Senior Programme Manager at the Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung. His research focuses on democratic governance and electoral politics in Ghana, with numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and academic books. Professor Owusu-Mensah has also served as a Guest Lecturer at international institutions including Humboldt University in Berlin, the University of Auckland, and the University of Waikato in New Zealand.