Prophecies In Elections And Its Implications On The Body Of Politics

COMMENTARY ON PROPHECIES IN ELECTIONS

Bono East Regional Director, Electoral Commission Prophecy in simple terms is the revelation of future events and the intentions of God to his people through a prophet. It constitutes a major component of Judeo-Christian tradition. Prophecy is not a bad thing in itself. After all, who does not want to know the mind of God and what will happen tomorrow. It is its abuse in any shape and form that is a challenge.

It has become a common phenomenon where the so called prophets and men of God prophesying the results of elections, claiming that the results have been revealed to them by God in advance. This phenomenon is dangerous spiritually and politically since, the legitimacy of elected government can be adversely affected. Legitimacy is one cardinal pillar on which any true democratic government rests. When it is damaged the government has no root to stand on nor any reason to exist.

The legitimacy in the democratic governance emanates from the will of the people which is represented by the choice of the voters. To create an impression, directly or indirectly that voters have been denied of their choice and that the government elect is not the will of the citizens is very serious and dangerous to the health of our democracy and should not be taken lightly. It stands to reason that false prophecies in elections can dent the credibility of election management body: what is even worse is the fact that when the falsehood of those doubtful prophecies are exposed with time, instead of the ‘men of God’ to eat a humble pie by accepting that their prophecies have turned out to be untrue, they rather embark on face-saving exercise at the expense of the election managers. They claim the verdict has been stolen instead of accepting that they did not get it right. In their efforts to shift the blame and the shame on to the election management they – simply claim that the election has been rigged, and end up denting the credibility of the only constitutional body mandated to conducts public elections and referenda in the country.

The danger of this situation rests in the fact that trust in the election management and confidence in the electoral system which constitute the cardinal pillar on which election results are encored are inextricably lost. At this point, it does not require an expert in conflict management to tell us that the cumulative effect of all the scenarios discussed above is violence especially in the environment of gullibility and fanaticism.

A genuinely losing candidate can take advantage of the already prepared grounds to create mayhem. What is even worse is the fact that these false prophecies can create doubt about the sincerity of God: we have instances in Ghana where different so called men of God prophecy victory for different candidates in the same presidential election in which only one winner is expected. This puts many minds in a dilemma as to whether God is not truthful? This can also affect the faith of many people in God. The earlier this is eliminated from our body politic in general and elections in particular the better.

BY GABRIEL DEI YEBOAH