Abstract

This survey research explores and presents the opinions of people in Ghana on several key areas: democracy and inter-communal violence, conflict in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenyan electoral violence during December 2007/February 2008 and salient issues and problems in Ghana. The study drawing on 407 participants reveal the following: A preference for representative democracy, agreement that there is no perfect electoral system, economic inequality which leads to higher levels of armed conflict, voting irregularities and exploitation of ethnic-tribal sentiments which is a factor in election violence, discrimination and perceptions of superiority which is problematic and ethnic-tribal allegiances that are strong in Ghana.

Key words: Ghana, opinion survey, democracy, electoral violence, ethnicity, inter-communal violence and conflict.