If democracy were only about elections, the Ghanaians have given us a stellar example of it in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana, like the United States, is considered a flawed democracy on The Economist’s Democracy Index. However, the quality of Ghana’s December 7, 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, from the political candidates to the electoral population and their general conduct, is hardly matched by any recent elections in West Africa.

Admittedly, the democratic exercise was not without blotches and challenges, but it was excellent enough to inspire confidence and hope in the nation's electoral process. From the moment the ballot was declared open to the later stages of the elections, young Ghanaians, who form the larger bulk of the voting population, turned out in large numbers and participated in all aspects of the elections. Several reports have declared high voter turnout across the 16 regions of Ghana, with a 73% average voter turnout, compared to 10% in Ivory Coast, 16% in Comoros, 26.72% in Nigeria, 38.66% in Benin, 39% in Madagascar, 43.79% in Cameroon, and 44.82% in Angola in the last five years.

The degree of popular interest in the Ghanaian elections was also instantiated by the resolve of young people to protect their ballots across the 276 constituencies and over 40,000 polling stations. Where overzealous supporters of one political party attempted to plunge the voting process into chaos to disfavor the other party, Ghanaian youth were quick to repel them and enforce deterrence. In the very few places where foully motivated thugs attempted to make a mess of the process or inflict harm on peaceful and affable voters, the police and other security agencies were swift to quell the disturbance without any excess use of force. Equally, where the military was deployed to a learning institution without reason, there was a fierce nationwide condemnation of the anomic affair, suggesting a shared sense of value and high standards of acceptable social conduct.

In the strongholds of the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), such as the Eastern Region, the total ballot cast for the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), increased to over 34%, just as the ballot for the NPP decreased to 64% from over 75% in the last two elections. Unlike in Nigeria, where convicted drug lords, degree fabricators, and idolized impostors are feted with cymbals and clarinets for battering their citizens and crippling democratic institutions, Ghana joins the ranks of Botswana, Namibia, and even Cape Verde in sub-Saharan Africa in conducting free, highly participatory, and reasonably contested elections.

Perhaps the single most instructive moment in the Ghanaian presidential election was the admission of defeat by the ruling party's presidential candidate, the incumbent Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who displayed a phenomenal personal example by congratulating his challenger, John Dramani Mahama and publicly declaring his loss, even before the nation's Electoral Commission (EC) had officially announced the results. This impeccable display of sportsmanship, placing the nation's interest above the party's, is closely rivalled by an earlier precedent by Carlos Veiga of the Movement for Democracy (MpD) in Cape Verde in 2021.

Although the Election Commission of Ghana has yet to officially declare the results of the election, which is a cause for concern and has quite contributed to post-election tension, the Ghanaian 2024 national elections must be regarded as a laudable democratic exercise that has produced several positive touchstones for democratic practice in sub-Saharan Africa, including the nation's first female Vice-President, Professor Naana Opoku-Agyemang.

In the final analysis, we must continue to seek viable answers to our lingering questions on democratic practice, including whether the Ghanaian-Cape Verdean exception can be sustained and replicated across the rest of West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa in general.