Abstract

Building trust in management of the electoral process is a major challenge in thirdwave democracies such as Ghana. Unsurprisingly, Ghanaian elections have generated impassioned debates since the return to multiparty democracy in 1992 with the Electoral Commission always under intense citizen and stakeholder scrutiny in relation to its independence and mandate. Such criticisms escalated in the 2020 elections following the prodigious dismissal of the chairperson of the Commission by the President. The decision to compile a new voters’ list against intense public opposition and during the Covid-19 outbreak cemented allegations of a sinister agenda by the Commission to manipulate the elections in favor of the incumbent. These created a significant credibility “gap” for the Commission going into the election. To interrogate this credibility gap, this study assesses the independence and autonomy of the Commission during the 2020 elections. With a sample size of 100 voters each from 116 constituencies, the analyses shows that the election was credible. However, to cure possible future allegations of bias, the study recommends that just as the Office of the Special Prosecutor, article 70(2) of the 1992 constitution should be amended to allow individuals appointed to head the Commission go through Parliamentary vetting and approval. The current arrangement that allows the President to seek advice from the Council of State in appointing a Chairperson of the Commission is lame as half the members of the Council are also appointed by the President.