Elections in an African Rural Area

Opening ParagraphWhat happens when an African tribal community is suddenly brought within a parliamentary system based on adult suffrage? On the surface, the process is a familiar one: an election date is announced, parties begin to be active, candidates are chosen, a government information van goes round to explain the procedure of voting, polling day arrives, and the member for X constituency is declared returned. The electorate has made its choice and the new member takes his seat in parliament. But, in substance, what happens? What are the issues on which the electorate divides—supposing there is a contest? How does a candidate put himself forward? What should he do, or have in his favour, in order to win? And—the most difficult question of all: how real are such contests in terms of local understanding of what the election is about? The following account is an attempt to answer these questions for one part of West Africa: the Kassena-Nankanni North and Bongo constituencies in northern Ghana during the 1954 and 1956 general elections.