Third Parties and Electoral Politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Since the inception of Ghana's fourth attempt at constitutional democracy in 1992, third parties have performed abysmally in the nation's electoral politics. The quest and hope for a third force in Ghanaian electoral politics has always been dashed after every election. This article places the electoral performance of third parties in Ghana's Fourth Republic under microscopic view and interrogates the nature of their pitiable electoral performance, and its implications on Ghana's multiparty electoral democracy. The paper analytically demonstrates the progressive decline of third parties' electoral output despite their active participation in both presidential and parliamentary elections. It argues that, although third parties' electoral fortunes appear utterly gloomy, showing no realistic chance of forming government, they augment Ghana's multiparty democratic politics. In order to make any meaningful incursion and impact in Ghanaian electoral politics, the paper will recommend the need for third parties with shared political ideology to reorganize under a uniform umbrella to become more electorally competitive in the future.