Johannesburg — With just three days to go before the general elections in Ghana, Monday's clash between jittery police and frustrated opposition protestors, and the controversial and highly charged issue of voter identification, have again fanned the flames of political tension.
The run up to Thursday's poll has been fraught, with rival parties accusing each other of intimidation and warning against any electoral irregularities. There have been sporadic clashes between opposing supporters in what many Ghanaians consider the most keenly contested election in their history.
When Ghanaians go to the polls this week, they will be voting for a new president to replace Jerry Rawlings, a former flight-lieutenant, who swapped his flying suit and military fatigues for smart suits and African batakari and boubous. Rawlings, a charismatic leader with a penchant for long and passionate speeches, has been in power for nineteen consecutive years.
He briefly led a military government in June 1979, handing back to civilians two months later, but returning to power after his second coup d'etat in 1981, accusing the civilian government of corruption and incompetence.
Rawlings was elected president in 1992, thirteen years after his first coup, and was re-elected in 1996. The constitution bars a Ghanaian head-of-state from standing for a third term. Comparatively young, at 53, the future of Jerry Rawlings is of concern to many in Ghana who see Thursday's election as the end of an era, but not necessarily the end of Rawlings, and are uneasy about the implications.
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Jerry Rawlings, 'JJ' or 'Junior Jesus' as he is known to his followers, has fashioned himself as a grassroots' people's president and fosters an image as the champion of the poor and downtrodden. The presidential and parliamentary polls in Ghana this week are likely to turn into a vote on the Rawlings' legacy. His supporters praise him as a visionary leader, his detractors say Rawlings has overseen the most repressive phase in Ghana's history.
Rawlings' protege, the vice-president, John Atta Mills, is the standard bearer for the governing NDC. His main rival in the closely-fought race for the presidency is John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party. Neither man has the charisma, fiery personality of crowd-pulling power of Jerry Rawlings. Five other candidates are also running for president.
Most commentators are predicting a second round run off , with no one candidate winning outright the fifty percent needed for victory in the first round of the election on Thursday.
