Introduction: The uncertainties of Ghana’s 2020 elections
本文介绍加纳2020年总统和议会选举的背景，指出尽管有12名候选人，但实际竞争主要在两大政党之间，且存在权力每八年交替的模式。
Ghana is among the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa where each presidential election has the potential to lead to power alternation. Between 1992 and 2016, power alternated thrice between Ghana’s two dominant political parties, the current ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). On 7 December 2020, Ghanaians will go to the polls to elect a new president and members of parliament. This will be the eighth successive presidential and parliamentary election since the country’s return to multiparty democracy in 1992. While the Electoral Commission (EC) has already cleared 12 qualified candidates to contest the upcoming presidential elections,1 there is little doubt that the contest will be a two-horse race between the NDC and the NPP, given their overwhelming dominance of all elections held since 1992. Although constitutionally a multiparty democratic state, in reality, Ghana operates a de facto two-party system in which the NDC and NPP have consistently accounted for over 90 percent of total votes in both presidential and parliamentary elections. Between these parties, a pattern of power alternating every eight years is emerging: after one of them serves for two terms in office, a small majority of voters often give the other party a turn.