Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaften und öffentliche Angelegenheiten
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Party Militias in Ghana: A Threat to Democratic Consolidation

Emmanuel Graham*, Henry Hagan

Party militias are rife in Ghanaian politics, and their activities have a negative impact on the consolidation of democracy in Ghana. Some of their activities have been violent acts on the electorate and members of other political parties. These activities tend to increase during and after the general election in Ghana, especially during the transfer of political power. In these elections, party militias have played several roles such as security agents, protecting ballot boxes, door-to-door campaigns, threatening political opponents, taking over state estates by forcing their opponents to leave after electoral defeat. Using democracy, democratic consolidation, electoral violence and militias as the conceptual framework, this paper seeks to assess the threat party militias have on democratic consolidation in Ghana. The paper discusses the nature and key characteristics of party militia, and the negative ways they have impacted democratic consolidation in Ghana. The main argument is that the activities of these party militias undermine democratic consolidation in Ghana behaviourally, attitudinally and constitutionally.