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The US State Department announced it will restrict visas for people Washington deems responsible for undermining democracy in Ghana. Ghana will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 7 December.
The US State Department announced it will restrict visas for people Washington deems responsible for undermining democracy in Ghana. Ghana will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 7 December.
Though Ghana has held peaceful, free, fair, and transparent elections for nearly two decades, this year’s allegations of voter roll irregularities have created concerns about a possible democratic backslide. The December polls will be the ninth consecutive general election since the country’s return to multi-party democracy in 1992.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the visa policy announced would be directed only at people “who undermine democracy” and not at the government or people of Ghana. Last month, Ghana’s biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), held nationwide protests demanding an audit of the voter roll.
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It alleged that it had detected thousands of unauthorized transfers and removals of voter names. As incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is stepping down, there are thirteen candidates approved by the electoral commission to run in the presidential election. However, political analysts say that it will be mainly a contest between former President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
