Ghana has successfully organized eight presidential and parliamentary elections since returning to constitutional democracy in 1992. Generally, all the eight elections have been successful and peaceful, with three of them resulting in a smooth transfer of power from one political party to the other. Despite this, electoral violence remains protracted in Ghana’s electoral cycle. These violent acts are mostly committed by political party supporters and their affiliate groups popularly called vigilantes and their activities have serious consequences on human security.
The January 2019 violence which characterized the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-elections and the devastating effects of the activities of political vigilantes resulted in a number of measures being instituted to prevent electoral-related violence in the country. Although these processes and initiatives to an extent contributed in part towards stemming vigilante activities during the pre-election, election, and post-election phases of the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, there were still a number of violent incidents.
Similar to the previous seven elections, justice for victims in the electoral violent cases recorded in the 2020 elections has not yet been served despite persistent calls from various organizations and the public for the Ghana Police Service/National Elections Security Task Force (GPS/NESTF) to speed up investigations and provide regular information to the public on the status of these cases.
This project therefore, seeks to track the status of electoral violent cases that were recorded in the 2020 elections in 6 out of the 16 administrative regions in Ghana, and advocate for the speedy resolution of all the cases to engender public trust in the security and criminal justice system and limit the tendency for potential reprisal attacks in future elections.
