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 elections

in african

developing

democracies
HILARY A. A. MIEZAH
Elections in African Developing Democracies
 Hilary A.A. Miezah

Elections in African
Developing
Democracies
Hilary A.A. Miezah
ELECTION AID (ELECTA)
London, UK

ISBN 978-3-319-53705-4    ISBN 978-3-319-53706-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53706-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017945348

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 Prologue

Elections in African Developing Democracies covers the whole spectrum of

the democratic electoral process, from putting in place an electoral law
either by a constitution, an Act of Parliament, a proclamation by a colonial
government, a decree in a military dictatorship or an electoral code. It
deals very broadly with all the major phases of the democratic electoral
process in both north and south, with a case study on most of the phases
in the African environment. These phases include:

1. Setting up electoral machinery and types of machinery available

2. The electoral budget and mobilization of external support
3. Registration of political parties and bodies responsible for the
registration
4. Demarcation of electoral boundaries, the criteria and the prob-
lems involved in an African environment
5. Registration of voters, types and stages of the registration process,
the eligibility criteria, the challenges and the control mechanisms
instituted to confront the challenges
6. Nomination of candidates, the prescriptions for the nominations
and the rationale behind the prescriptions
7. The political campaign
8. Appointment of polling agents, their roles and limitations
9. The poll and types thereof, the commonest being one ballot box
and one ballot paper bearing the names, symbols and photographs
of candidates

v
vi PROLOGUE

Although an electoral law may not cater for publicity and public educa-
tion, the author sees public enlightenment as the hub around which the
whole electoral process revolves in the developing world. A section of the
book is therefore devoted to public enlightenment. Cultural reproduction
strategies including music and dance, slogans and symbols, beating of
drums, gongons, firing of musketry and story-telling are some of the cited
tools of mass communication in many countries in Africa. This shows the
structure of the massive intensive public education machinery in the
regions, districts and constituencies.
Local and international observation and monitoring by foreign govern-
ments, international organizations like the United Nations (UN), the
Commonwealth, the African Union, the European Community, interna-
tional development agencies and non-governmental organizations are
included in Chap. 5. Emphasis is placed on the need to observe the prin-
ciple of sovereignty of state and non-interference by foreign election
observers and monitors in the internal affairs of host countries.
The author concedes that circumstances on the ground may compel the
electoral machinery to ask for help from foreign observers and monitors.
The help may include training of trainers, mobilization of financial and
logistical support and, occasionally, printing and distribution of election
materials. He cites as case studies the massive support received by the
Central African Republic and Sierra Leone in 1999 and 2002, respectively,
from external partners during these countries’ presidential and parliamen-
tary elections.
In conclusion, the author cautions that none of the phases discussed in
this chapter is less important or must be taken for granted. The 2012 elec-
tion petition in Ghana is used as a country case study to show how impor-
tant it is to scrupulously follow the laws, procedures and modalities in the
conduct of open, transparent, credible and accountable elections.
The subjects addressed in Chap. 6 on External Aid, Chap. 7 on Sel-
freliance and Chap. 8 on Security and Control Mechanisms may not be
covered by electoral law. However, these areas of the process could heavily
impact on the democratic electoral process in developing countries.
The electoral budget in many developing democracies depends on
external aid. Although the author argues that democracy should not be a
periodic gift to a developing country, he apprises the reader of the external
aid available, the types, sources and means of accessing it.
On self-reliance, the author lays emphasis on the mobilization of avail-
able local human and material resources, the use of locally made items,
 PROLOGUE
   vii

judicious application of resources and the elimination of corrupt practices

and waste. He deals with the institution of security and control mecha-
nisms to ensure credible elections. He shows the sensitive areas of the
electoral process, which call for rigid security controls.
In Chap. 10, the author describes the media as a watchdog of the elec-
tion process. In some jurisdictions, the freedom and independence of the
media are guaranteed in national constitutions. This constitutional provi-
sion is to enable the media to serve as the eagle eye of the democratic
electoral process in emerging democracies. Ghana and Namibia are cited
as examples.
As indicated in Chap. 2, there are no erga omnes rules for the conduct
and supervision of elections. Every country has its specific needs and its
elections must be consistent with the needs and aspirations of the people.
However, all elections are subject to universally accepted norms and the
electoral jargon “free expression of the will of the people”. Every coun-
try’s peculiar circumstances determine the design and implementation of
its electoral process.
For purposes of illustration, the people of Zimbabwe went to the polls
in 1980 without a voters’ register as known in Britain, Ghana or any other
developed or developing democracy, as discussed in Chap. 5 of this book.
Instead, individual personal identification documents including passports,
driving licences and work permits constituted the Common Roll for black
voters, who voted for the first time in Zimbabwe.
Ghana, Sierra Leone, Namibia, the Central African Republic, South
Africa and Zimbabwe have been selected for case studies. The book is lit-
tered with references to cases in India, the world’s largest democracy, and
Cambodia, where the author served as Zone Controller and Provincial
Director with the United Nations during the country’s constitutional pro-
cess from 1992 to 1993.
In Chaps. 1, 2, 3 and 4, the book generally covers democratic elections.
An attempt is made to define an election, the electoral process and the
electoral system, terms often used interchangeably in developing coun-
tries, in order to aid readers who are not thoroughly briefed on election
mechanisms.
As country case studies, the author cites Ghana’s return to constitu-
tional rule from 1967 to 1969, UN Resolution 435(1978) on the
Namibian political question and the 1980 Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia)
independence elections to show the differences between the single act of
an election on a statutorily appointed day or days, and the electoral pro-
cess itself, which may take several months or years to complete.
viii PROLOGUE

Using the 1978 Referendum on Union Government in Ghana in

Chap. 1, the author highlights some of the challenges and intricacies
in the conduct and supervision of elections, referenda and plebiscites in
developing democracies. These challenges include governmental and
other external pressures and interferences, intimidation, harassment from
state ideological institutions, political parties and so on. The author cites a
catalogue of benchmarks for the conduct and supervision of democratic
elections, including principally capable men and women charged with the
conduct and supervision of the electoral process, courage, boldness, fear-
lessness, positive neutrality and non-alignment, strict observance of the
electoral law, rules, regulations, procedures and modalities, openness,
transparency, credibility and the cooperation of the electorate.
In Chap. 3 the author works on models of elections in Africa. He cat-
egorizes these into the pre-colonial model, pre-independence model, elec-
tions held in special circumstances, elections from military rule to
constitutional rule and elections held after the normal term of Parliament
or the end of presidential incumbency. He cites Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
in the pre-colonial model and uses Ghana as an example in the preinde-
pendence model. The 1980 Zimbabwe independence elections, the 1989
Namibia elections, the South African first multiracial elections of 1994
and the Sierra Leone elections of 2002 are cited as Africa’s historical
examples of elections in special circumstances.
In Chap. 4, the author critically examines the electoral systems avail-
able and the advantages and disadvantages of each system in the light of
the inadequacies in many developing countries. He explains how the
single member transferable vote or single majority/plurality system is
the most preferred option in most African countries. He cites the party
list system adopted in Namibia under UN Resolution 435(1978) and
the district block system used in Sierra Leone in 2002 due to the pre-
vailing circumstances at the time. He adds to these arrangements an
indigenous electoral system, a system based on consultation and com-
promise and in accordance with customary practices and usage.
Using Sierra Leone as a case study, he refers to a provision in the 1991
Sierra Leone Constitution which enables traditional rulers to be elected to
Parliament.
In Chap. 5, the author deals very broadly with all the major phases of
the democratic electoral process in both north and south, with a case study
on most of the phases in the African environment. This chapter com-
mences, as the first step of the electoral process, with the promulgation of
 PROLOGUE
   ix

an electoral law, either through a constitution, a statute, an electoral code,

a constitutional or legislative instrument or a decree in a military dictator-
ship. The chapter ends with the election petition. The author emphasizes
the point that the law is the foundation of the whole electoral process.
Between the two phases above, the author methodologically works
through all the principal phases in the democratic electoral process, with
bullet points on the most sensitive phases of the process, in order to guide
election practitioners, seminar organizers, researchers, politicians, political
party agents and students of political science.
The author includes the discussion of local and international observa-
tion and monitoring by foreign governments, international organizations
like the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the African Union, the
European Community, international development agencies and non-­
governmental organizations. Emphasis is placed on the need to observe the
principle of sovereignty of state and non-interference by foreign election
observers and monitors in the internal affairs of host countries.
The author concedes that circumstances on the ground may compel the
electoral machinery to ask for help from foreign observers and monitors.
This help may include training of trainers, mobilization of financial and logis-
tical support and, occasionally, printing and distribution of election materials.
He cites as case studies the massive support received by the Central African
Republic and Sierra Leone in 1999 and 2002, respectively, from external
partners during these countries’ presidential and parliamentary elections.
In conclusion, the author cautions that none of the phases discussed in
this chapter is less important or must be taken for granted. The 2012 elec-
tion petition in Ghana is used as a country case study to show how impor-
tant it is to scrupulously follow the laws, procedures and modalities in the
conduct of open, transparent, credible and accountable elections.
The subjects addressed in Chap. 6 on External Aid, Chap. 7 on
Selfreliance and Chap. 8 on Security and Control Mechanisms may not be
covered by electoral law. However, these areas of the process could heavily
impact on the democratic electoral process in developing countries.
The electoral budget in many developing democracies depends on
external aid. Although the author argues that democracy should not be a
periodic gift to a developing country, he apprises the reader of the external
aid available, the types, sources and means of accessing it.
On self-reliance, the author lays emphasis on the mobilization of avail-
able local human and material resources, the use of locally made items, the
judicious application of resources and the elimination of corrupt practices
x PROLOGUE

and waste. He deals with the institution of security and control mecha-
nisms to ensure credible elections. He shows the sensitive areas of the
electoral process, which call for rigid security controls.
In Chap. 10, the author describes the media as a watchdog of the elec-
tion process. In some jurisdictions, the freedom and independence of the
media are guaranteed in national constitutions. This constitutional provi-
sion is to enable the media to serve as the eagle eye of the democratic
electoral process in emerging democracies. Ghana and Namibia are cited
as examples.
In the Central African Republic, registration of voters is compulsory
and the voters’ register is prepared by local chiefs.
While some countries have non-partisan multiparty electoral commis-
sions, some have partisan multiparty electoral commissions, sole electoral
commissioners and government departments organizing their elections.
In Chap. 5, for each phase of the electoral process the author shows the
types, options and challenges, with as many case studies as possible.
Ghana has incorporated into its electoral laws biometric registration
and verification at voting, as part of the control mechanisms to ward off
multiple registration, registration of minors, impersonation and multiple
voting.
As argued in this book, there is no guarantee that the feared mischief
can be completely cured through the introduction of expensive equip-
ment and machinery. A massive intensive effort at public education,
capacity-­building, inspiring confidence in the process and the elimination
of corrupt practices could go a long way to aid the democratic electoral
process in emerging democracies.
A country’s Electoral Commission may be independent. In the perfor-
mance of its functions, it may not be subject to the direction or control of
any person or authority. However, a country’s electoral machinery may
create a consultative or advisory body comprising political parties in legal
existence, civil society and religious bodies. This body may draw up a
Code of Conduct to regulate the conduct of political parties. Ghana, a
case study, has one such body, which has been incorporated into its elec-
toral laws. The reason for the formation of this body is to set the relations
between the electoral machinery and political and civil society on a formal
and regular basis, thus facilitating consultation and the receipt and
­settlement of complaints. This action also helps to ensure openness, trans-
parency, accountability and credibility.
As indicated in Chap. 9, over the years there have been debates in many
African countries on the desirability of moving away from what are per-
 PROLOGUE
   xi

ceived to be imposed Western democratic electoral systems. These attempts

gave birth to one-party states with a one-party electoral system in Ghana
and many other African countries and a union government proposal put
forward in Ghana in 1978, which never saw the light of day. The author
asserts that there have been constitutional reforms in several African coun-
tries to cater for the representation of traditional authorities in Parliament
and the district assemblies (local councils), thus blending indigenous prac-
tices into universally accepted norms.
The studies show that traditional authorities in several African countries
have, notwithstanding the criticism of the Western electoral system, now
moved away from the indigenous electoral system to the universally
respected democratic electoral system.
In Ghana, elections to the Regional and National Houses of Chiefs are
conducted and supervised by the country’s electoral machinery in accor-
dance with the Chieftaincy Act 2008 and constitutional instruments.
Similarly, the election of Paramount Chiefs in Sierra Leone is conducted
by the country’s Electoral Commission.
Twelve of the parliamentary seats in Sierra Leone are allocated to
Paramount Chiefs elected in separate elections in accordance with custom-
ary practice and usage, as provided for in the 1991 constitution. The prin-
ciple of consultations and compromises as opposed to partisan rivalry and
insults is preserved in these elections.
The multiplicity of electoral laws, modalities and control mechanisms
in developing democracies is largely attributable to the challenges con-
fronting developing democracies, the experience of underdevelopment
and the world system. The constitutional reforms currently going on in
several African countries and the blending of indigenous practices into
the electoral process will no doubt lead to the improvement of the dem-
ocratic electoral process in emerging democracies.
The cost of elections in many African countries has massively accelerated
within the last few years. This experience has culminated in neo-­dependence
on the consolidated democracies. External funding has become a major
phase of the democratic electoral process. This book examines the funding
of elections in Africa. The project aims at ­self-­reliance, to stop the finan-
cially burdensome ad hoc arrangements, and to dispel the notion that the
greatest threat to democracy is poverty.
Elections in African Developing Democracies is geared towards political
parties and their agents, election practitioners, students of political science
and government, constitutional law, election observers and monitors, and
xii PROLOGUE

international development agencies. It will no doubt aid in promoting,

maintaining and strengthening the democratic electoral process in Africa.

Introduction
Elections in African Developing Democracies is a synthesis of 48 years of
active and practical experience in the conduct and supervision of elections
and referenda in my own country, Ghana, with the United Nations in
Africa and Asia, international seminars, and other training programmes,
research studies and election observation.
The original title of this work was ‘Elections in Developing Democracies’.
Although Africa epitomizes the experience of many developing countries
in the south, the work was dominated by the African experience, with
fragmentary case studies in Asia and South America. I therefore jumped to
the idea when my publishers drew my attention to this unfair balance, for
which I am infinitely grateful.
I came by the idea of writing a book on elections in developing democ-
racies after an encounter with election experts and practitioners and
c­elebrated politicians from across the globe during the 1996 Democratic
Convention in Chicago, USA. I had been honoured with an invitation by
the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs (NDI) to attend this historic convention. After discussions with
fellow invited guests, including electoral commissioners, a Speaker of
Parliament of Togo, West Africa, ministers from Mali and famous politi-
cians from the UK, I decided to write a book on elections in emerging
democracies. As a matter of fact, colleagues and diplomats I had earlier
met on election assignments in Africa had suggested that I write a book on
elections.
I found from the informal discussions held with the international guests
that the challenges I had been grappling with in my own country, Ghana,
and on other international assignments were very similar, if not the same.
These challenges included inadequate resources, continuing dependence
on foreign governments and international development agencies, govern-
mental and external influences, undue suspicion, anxiety and fear on the
part of some political parties, always culminating in the call for the institu-
tion of very rigid and expensive control mechanisms. Furthermore, I had
earlier worked on a project called ‘The Media and the Electoral Process in
Developing Democracies’.
 Prologue 
   xiii

It may initially seem strange to begin a book on the democratic elec-

toral process in Africa by giving a historical account of events and the
author’s personal experiences in the conduct and supervision of elec-
tions at home and abroad. The chosen approach is to emphasize that
electoral laws, procedures and modalities are designed in accordance
with the prevailing circumstances on the ground and the needs and
aspirations of the people. As will be observed in the chapters ahead,
there are no binding rules of universal application for the conduct and
supervision of elections.
The harsh environmental conditions, the benchmarks of courage, bold-
ness, fearlessness to serve as an election practitioner, manifest neutrality
and impartiality, sound knowledge of election mechanisms and high moral
character are brought to the fore in this Introduction and Chap. 1.
Following the events of the 1966 coup d’état, which saw the overthrow
of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, first president of the Republic of Ghana, I was
transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Electoral
Commission. After a thorough briefing, I was posted to the Eastern
region, Ghana’s second most densely populated region with 22 constitu-
encies at that time, as regional electoral officer.
With a regular office support staff of ten, I organized the 1969 registra-
tion of voters and the first multiparty parliamentary elections in the Eastern
region following the collapse of the one-party system. There were no dis-
trict electoral offices at that time. District administrative officers and district
heads of department served as registration and returning officers ad interim
during the registration of voters and the polls. These officers were assisted
by locally recruited staff as registration assistants and polling staff.
Conditions in the field were harsh. In several areas there were no driv-
able roads and no portable water. There was no electricity in many areas.
Several areas could only be reached by tractors, motor cycles, bicycles
and canoes. The few roads in the rural areas were not good. There were
frequent breakdowns of vehicles and widespread accidents. Apart from
the few well-to-do in the district capitals who had television sets and
radios, many areas were cut off from the outside world and had no access
to any information about the impending elections.
To circumvent this challenge, in consultation with the Electoral
Commissioner, the Hon. Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, I formed regional,
district and constituency publicity and public education committees.
Membership of the committees comprised staff of the Eastern Regional
Administrative Office, regional heads of the Ministry of Information,
xiv Prologue

Education, Social Welfare and Community Development and the Electoral

Commission, and the district administrative officers and district heads of
department, who served as registration and returning officers. The district
officers in turn created town and village education and publicity commit-
tees. The regional electoral officer coordinated the activities of these com-
mittees and supplied them with publicity materials from headquarters in
Accra. Many participants had not voted before and did not know how to
register and vote.
Mass communication strategies had to be developed. We opted for cul-
tural reproduction, using music and dancing, story-telling, and public
address systems fitted on vehicles, which played songs and informed the
people about the registration and the election procedures. Open group
discussions were organized by the district officers and guests from the
regional headquarters were invited to attend.
No national exercise in a traditional area of authority can succeed with-
out the support and cooperation of the chiefs, which it was therefore cru-
cial to solicit. Unfortunately, some of the chiefs had openly identified
themselves with some political parties. We had to be careful in order not
to compromise the neutrality and impartiality of the Electoral Commission.
We paid the necessary courtesy calls, as tradition demanded, briefed them
on the electoral process and appealed to them for support and coopera-
tion. To ward off any undue suspicion, it was decided that no registration
or polling station should be sited in a chief’s palace. Neither should any
registration or election material be kept there. Notwithstanding the pre-
vailing harsh conditions, inadequacy of logistical support, unfounded fear
and suspicion, the 1969 parliamentary election went off very successfully
with a huge budget surplus, which I used to build a duty post bungalow
and a guest house at Koforidua, the Eastern Region Administrative capital,
for the Electoral Commission.
The 1969 election was proclaimed worldwide as transparent, open,
credible, free and fair and is always regarded by Ghanaians as one of
the most successful elections ever held in the country. The election was
successful because the machinery charged with the conduct and supervi-
sion of the elections enjoyed the overwhelming support of the electorate
and all stakeholders. Available statistics also indicate that the election was
the least expensive ever held in the Republic of Ghana.
As a result of the very successful elections in the Eastern region, I was
posted to the Ashanti Region, Ghana’s most densely populated region,
also with 22 constituencies at that time.
 Prologue 
   xv

There was another military intervention barely three years after the
return to multiparty democracy. Colonel I.K. Acheampong, soon to
become General Acheampong, had overthrown the government of Dr.
Abrefa Kofi Busia, Prime Minister of Ghana’s Second Republic. Hurriedly,
a national identification programme was ordered and the Electoral
Commission was to apply the resources at its disposal for the programme.
I served in the Northern, Upper, Volta and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana
with teams of registration assistants and photomatic operators. The mili-
tary abolished the Electoral Commission, redesignating it the Civil
Registration and Electoral Department. I was appointed Deputy Director
in charge of local government and chieftaincy elections. The military
regime put forward a proposal for a union government. It defined this
novel system of administration as a government composed of civilians, the
military and the police. This proposal generated a heated debate across the
political spectrum. Conspicuous among the opponents of the concept
were the intellectuals led by Professor Adu Boahen of blessed memory and
students of tertiary institutions.
A Union Government Committee was formed. The Electoral Commission
was re-established and Justice I.K. Abban, a High Court judge, was appointed
Electoral Commissioner. He was to be assisted by Mr. M. Quaye as Assistant
Electoral Commissioner. I was appointed Secretary to the Electoral
Commission supported by two deputies, one for administration and the
other for operations. Then came the Union Government Referendum on 30
March 1978. The events of the referendum are fully covered in Chap. 1, in
order to show some of the challenges in the conduct of elections and refer-
enda in Africa. The Electoral Commissioner, who later became the Chief
Justice of the Seychelles and Ghana, respectively, myself and the Deputy
Secretary in charge of operations had to take cover to save our lives on the
night of the 1978 referendum.
General Acheampong was overthrown in a palace coup by General
Akuffo and the union government never saw the light of day. A pro-
gramme for return to constitutional rule was announced. Justice Joseph
Kingsley Nyinah, an Appeal Court judge, was appointed to replace Justice
Abban. While we were working on the ten-point programme for return to
constitutional rule, Flight Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings overthrew the SMC
Two regime, killing three former military heads of state, including General
A.A. Afrifa of the NLC regime, General Acheampong and General Akuffo
of SMC One and SMC Two, and all Service Commanders of the Ghana
Armed Forces. We were mandated to continue with the programme for
xvi Prologue

return to constitutional rule and within three months we organized the

1979 elections, which ushered in the government of the Third Republic
led by Dr. Hilla Limann as President. Rawlings came in a second time to
overthrow the government of Dr. Limann. I left Ghana to join the UN
after this second push by Rawlings. With the UN, I served in diverse
capacities at UNHQ New York, Namibia, Cambodia, Western Sahara, the
Central African Republic and Sierra Leone. Intermittently, I served with
other international organizations on elections in South Africa, Chad,
Niger and Benin and interacted with election experts and practitioners
across the globe.
The topics in the ten chapters of this book have been selected to reflect
the general sentiments of electoral experts and practitioners for the real-
ization of a group goal; that is, peaceful, open, transparent and credible
elections within every African country’s financial means.
 Acknowledgements

This work is my modest contribution to the world system in the promo-

tion, maintenance and strengthening of the democratic electoral process
in developing democracies. It emanates from numerous and persistent
requests from friends, colleagues, heads of diplomatic missions and elec-
tion experts and practitioners from around the world with whom I had the
singular privilege and fortune of working and interacting within my own
country, Ghana, and at the UN, the Washington-based National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), AMEX International
and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, UK.
Although I do not propose mentioning names, I feel obliged to place on
record the names of personalities through whose encouragement and sup-
port this work has become possible. I do so to enable the reader to see the
enormously distinguished blessing and support this work enjoys. I am
deeply grateful therefore to Hon. Mr. Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, Supreme
Court judge of Ghana, and Interim Electoral Commissioner of Ghana
from 1968 to 1970, who appointed me as Electoral Officer in 1968 and
posted me to the Eastern region of Ghana as Regional Electoral Officer to
organize the 1969 general elections in that region with 22 constituencies;
His Lordship Justice Apaloo, formerly Chief Justice of Ghana, a man whose
message of felicitation during the Union Government Referendum of 1978
so inspired me; the late Archbishop of Cape Coast, His Grace the Right
Revd. John Kadwo Amissah, who exhorted and admonished me during the
1978 Union Government Referendum in Ghana; the late Mr. Justice
I.K. Abban, Chief Justice of Ghana and the Seychelles and former Sole
Electoral Commissioner of Ghana, under whom I served d ­ uring the Union

xvii
xviii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Government Referendum; Sir Banja Tejan-Sie, former Chief Justice,

Speaker and Governor-General of Sierra Leone and Chairman of the Board
of Directors of Election Aid 1990–91, a mentor who always prevailed upon
me to share my experiences with other African election practitioners; His
Excellency Martti Ahtisaari, former President of the Republic of Finland,
Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Special Representative
of the United Nations Secretary General to Namibia (UNTAG) in
1989–90, under whom I had the privilege of serving as Electoral Consultant
at the UNHQ New York and as Deputy Director Policy and Planning with
UNTAG Namibia; Mr. Hisham Omayad, Director, Special Political
Questions and Decolonization of the United Nations, through whose rec-
ommendations I was invited in 1984 to replace the late Mr. G.A.K. Bonsu,
former Electoral Commissioner of Ghana, as UN Electoral Consultant;
Ms. Judith Kuhl, ELECTA volunteer and a friend, Washington, DC; Dr.
Clark, Director Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration,
Green Hill, Ghana, who offered me a place on the postgraduate course in
Management and Public Administration 1974–75, which opened the door
to research into the Ghana electoral system and process; Dr. Akuako
Frimpong, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration; the
late Professor Kofi Agovi, Acting Director, Institute of African Studies,
University of Ghana, Legon, Fulbright Scholar in Residence, University of
Illinois, Member of the Board of Directors, Election Aid (ELECTA); the
late Dr. Samuel K. Akesson of the University of New York, Member,
Election Aid (ELECTA); the late Mr. G.A.K. Bonsu, first Secretary to the
Ghana Electoral Commission, first substantive Sole Electoral Commissioner
of Ghana and first African Electoral Consultant to the UN, whom I replaced
in 1984; Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji, Foreign Minister of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-­
General for the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone, under whom I
served on the two UN missions as UN Chief Electoral Officer in the
Central African Republic (MUNURCA) and Senior Electoral Advisor in
Sierra Leone (MINURSO), respectively; the late Mr. Sylvanus Tiewul, an
Attorney and Secretary of the Fifth Committee of the UN General
Assembly; Dr. Kwame Poku, Legal Advisor to UNTAG (Namibia) and UN
Ombudsman Vienna; His Excellency Kabral Blay Amihere, Ghana High
Commissioner to Sierra Leone during the country’s presidential and parlia-
mentary elections in 2002 and Chairman of the Media Commission of
Ghana, who so inspired me while I was serving with the UN mission as
Senior Electoral Advisor.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
   xix

To Mrs. Tete-Nartey (née Rosaline Miezah), my daughter and secre-

tary, and the late Mr. Anlimah Natchia-Blay, Coordinator with Election
Aid (ELECTA), London, I am most thankful for their dedication, enthu-
siasm and sacrifice in working on the manuscript.
No doubt, a work like this one is a partnership between the writer and
numerous institutions, election experts and practitioners, distinguished
scholars who graciously consented to browse through and offer pep talks
and trusted friends. The major contribution of the writer was only the
synthesis and interpretation of material, advice and suggestions. However,
I am solely responsible for the mediocre language, poor grammar, spelling
and the characteristic Ndweafo/Aduana stubbornness and ambition of
having this work published before December 2016. I shall be deeply
grateful for any advice, suggestions and criticisms to improve upon the
next edition, God willing.
To my wife Georgina, children, grandchildren and great-­granddaughter,
who supported me in diverse ways, I say je vous aime.
 Contents

1 Introduction  1

2 Defining Elections  7
Elections in Developing Democracies  7
Why Elections or Referenda?  9

3 Models of Elections in African Developing Democracies 13

Pre-colonial Models 13
Pre-independence Elections 14
Post-independence Model 16
Elections in Special Circumstances 17

4 Electoral Systems 23
Simple Majority/Plurality System 25
Proportional and Alternative Representation
or Single-Member Transferable Vote 27
Indigenous Electoral System 31

5 The Electoral Process 35

Legislation 35
The Electoral Machinery 48
Types of Electoral Machinery 49
Electoral Budget 57
Registration of Political Parties 62

xxi
xxii Contents

Demarcation of Electoral Boundaries 68

Registration of Voters 70
Exhibition and Authentication of the Voters’ Register 76
Revision and Replacement of the Voters’ Register 81
Dos and Don’ts on Registration of Voters 84
Registration and Polling Staff 87
Voter Identification 87
Nomination of Candidates 94
Political Campaigns and Campaign Finance 98
Public Enlightenment102
Appointment of Polling Agents110
The Poll114
Voting Methods114
Voting Procedures116
Collation and Certification of Election Results125
Election Observation127
Election Petitions131

6 External Aid135

7 Self-Reliance139

8 Control and Security Mechanisms151

9 Blending Indigenous Systems into Western

Democratic Systems161

10 The Media and the Democratic Process175

Epilogue 191

Appendices201

Bibliography213

Index215
 Glossary of Abbreviations

CAR Central African Republic

CEMI Independent Electoral Commission of Central African
Republic
CEO Chief Electoral Officer
CPP Cambodia People’s Party (CAMBODIA)
CPP Coalition for Progress Party (SIERRA LEONE)
CPP Convention People’s Party (GHANA)
CRED Civil Registration and Electoral Department (GHANA)
DDR Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration
EC Electoral Commission
ECOWAS Economic Community of West Africa
ELA Electoral Laws Act 2002 (SIERRA LEONE)
ELECTA Election Aid
EU European Union
IDP Internally Displaced Persons
IFES International Foundation for Electoral Services
MILOBS Military Observers
MINURCA United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic
NDC National Democratic Congress (GHANA)
NDI National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
NDP National Democratic Party (GHANA)
NLC National Liberation Council (GHANA)
NLCD National Liberation Council Decree (GHANA)
NPP National Patriotic Party (GHANA)
NRC National Redemption Council (GHANA)

xxiii
xxiv Glossary of Abbreviations

NRCD National Redemption Council Decree (GHANA)

OAU Organization of African Unity
PPP Progressive Peoples Party
SLPP Sierra Leone People’s Party
STOS Short-term Observers
SWAPO South West African People’s Organization (NAMIBIA)
UNAMSIL United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone
UNSRSG Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-
General
UNTAC United Nations Transition Administration in Cambodia
UNTAG United Nations Transition Administration General
(NAMIBIA)
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WFD Westminster Foundation for Democracy
 List of Tables

Table I  193

Table II  194
Table III  196
Table IV  197
Table V Namibia election—1989: Vote results summary 198
Table VI  199
Table VII Upper region 199
Table VIII Volta region 199

xxv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Following a face-to-face TV programme in March 1978 on the Union

Government Referendum in Ghana,1 Mr. Justice I.K. Abban, the Sole
Electoral Commissioner, passed on to me a message from the Chief
Justice, His Lordship Justice F.K. Apaloo, the next day: “How His
Lordship wished Ghana had ten courageous young men like you.
Congratulations!” This message fortified me in my resolve always to
preside over manifestly free, fair, transparent and credible elections
boldly, courageously and fearlessly.
I had gone to the national radio and television studio to assure the
Ghanaian electorate of a really free, fair, transparent and credible referen-
dum. The nation had been gripped by fear as a result of growing rumours
that the referendum was going to be rigged. Plans were allegedly afoot to
have the Electoral Commissioner and the Secretary to the Commission
assassinated. Coincidentally, a Major in General Acheampong’s office at
Castle Osu, the seat of administration, had threatened the Electoral
Commissioner and the Secretary to the Commission with death at the
Castle a few days before the TV programme.
A delegation of women supporters of “Union Government—Yes” had
protested to the symbol assigned to the “Union Government—No”
issue. The symbol for the “Union Government—Yes” was two hands
interlocked in a handshake on a blue background. That for the “Union
Government—No” issue was two heads looking in opposite directions
on a red background. According to the protesters, opponents of Union

© The Author(s) 2018 1

H.A.A. Miezah, Elections in African Developing Democracies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53706-1_1
2 1 INTRODUCTION

­ overnment (Unigov) were interpreting the symbol for no to mean “one

g
head does not go into council”, a popular Ghanaian adage.
General Acheampong had invited Mr. Justice I.K. Abban to the Castle
to direct the Commission to change the symbol for the No issue. This
request was in flagrant violation of the decree establishing the Electoral
Commission and of the fact that, to quote in part, “in the performance of
its functions the Electoral Commission shall not be subject to the direc-
tion or control of any person or authority”. Ghanaians wanted assurance
from the Electoral Commission that the referendum would be free and
fair and I was on air to give that assurance.
I took the opportunity to restate the stand of the Electoral Commission
and to condemn undue interference in the work of the Commission by
outsiders. I appealed to the Ghanaian public for support and cooperation,
emphasizing that “there can be no free and fair referendum without the
support, vigilance and cooperation of the electorate”.
Then came the Union Government Referendum on 30 March 1978.
Voting stated at 7.00 am and ended at 5.00 pm. There were no major
incidents during the voting. Confrontations started after 6.00 pm. The
Western Regional Commissioner, Colonel Dawuni, had instructed the
regional electoral officer, Mr. J.K. Mould, not to have the votes cast ini-
tially counted, as the law provided, at the polling stations before the final
count at the constituency counting centres. Mr. Mould asked the Regional
Commissioner to speak to headquarters, if he wanted to vary the regula-
tions. The Colonel spoke to me. I told him we could not accede to his
instruction. He took offence and reported the matter to the Castle, the
seat of government in Accra. Following a similar request from Kumasi, the
Ashanti capital, I sent a radio message to all regional electoral officers not
to vary the procedures without express directives from the Sole Electoral
Commissioner.
About 8.30 pm the referendum results started coming in from the
regions. Each regional headquarters had a scoreboard on which all the
constituency results were recorded. Accra, the Ghanaian capital, had a
gigantic national scoreboard on which all the regional results were
recorded. A press centre for the international media had been set up at the
Black Star Square, where the national scoreboard was erected with tele-
phone, fax and telex facilities. At the Electoral Commission was an opera-
tions room with hotlines connecting all the regional capitals to the
Commission. The police band was in attendance, providing Ghanaian
highlife music under bright multicoloured lights in a tropical night breeze.
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

The first result came from Bawku East in the Upper region. Union
government had won in that constituency. Several constituencies in the
region had voted for union government, on which confirmation had been
received from the Regional Electoral Officer, Mr. Doku. Next came the
result from Bantama in the Ashanti region. Union Government—No had
won there. The result from Kumasi Manhyia followed. It was a landslide
for No. A constituency in Greater Accra followed with another landslide
for No. Immediately, a call came from the Castle before the official release
of the remaining Accra results. The Castle directed that all the results
should be sent to the Castle, the seat of government, before the official
release. The response from the Electoral Commissioner was an emphatic
no. Colonel Yanney, the Secretary for Information, was dispatched to ask
the Electoral Commissioner to comply with the directive, but to no avail.
The police band continued providing music and supporters of the two
issues danced their way to either endorsement or rejection of Unigov.
About 10.30 pm we had information from the Commission’s security
guards in the first yard that there were some unusual movements. We
were on the third floor. Five minutes later we learnt that some armed
soldiers had come to the Commission and were arguing fiercely with the
armed police on duty. We put out the lights on the third and fourth floors
and left the Commission through a passage from the fourth floor.
Through the southern yard we left the premises and went to the Holy
Spirit Cathedral Accra, about 500 yards from the Commission. We rang
the Commission from the cathedral, to learn to our chagrin that the
­soldiers had taken over and were ransacking the offices. The Electoral
Commissioner, Justice I.K. Abban, my deputy in charge of operations,
Mr. E.K. Asillijoe, a security officer, Mr. Brown and I separated and went
into hiding at different locations.
The next day we learnt that “Union Government—Yes” had won by a
51 per cent majority. The Ghanaian rumours continued: “the Sole
Electoral Commissioner and the Secretary to the Commission had been
allegedly murdered and thrown into the sea”. The world’s media, espe-
cially the BBC, carried the news of our disappearance. We were in hiding
for two to three days before resurfacing separately. Justice Abban, then a
High Court judge, went back to the bench. Asilijoe, Brown and I returned
to the Commission.
General Acheampong, Chairman of SMC 1 was overthrown in a palace
coup and on 4 June 1979, SMC 11 led by General Akufo was overthrown.
Generals Acheampong, General Akufo and many other high-ranking officers
4 1 INTRODUCTION

of the Ghana Armed Forces were killed by firing squad by the Armed Forces
Revolutionary Council (AFRC), led by Flight Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings.
In his maiden radio and television address to the nation, Rawlings
pledged to continue the SMC 11 programme for return to constitutional
rule. The date for the election remained unchanged and on 18 June and 9
July 1979, Ghanaians went to the poll to elect in combined and simultane-
ous elections the Parliament and President of the Third Republic.
It may seem unusual to commence a book on elections in emerging
democracies with a historical account of the 1978 Ghana Union
Government Referendum. The experience of this referendum epitomizes
some of the challenges and intricacies in the conduct and supervision of
elections, referenda and plebiscites in a developing country. That experi-
ence may include governmental and other external pressures and interfer-
ences, intimidation, and harassment from the state ideological apparatus,
political parties and persons who may not support the democratic process
and would do all they can to derail it.
The 1978 referendum, however, reveals in a heartwarming way all the
benchmarks for the conduct and supervision of democratic elections, ref-
erenda and plebiscites in a developing-country environment. To name a
few of these: capable men and women charged with the conduct and
supervision of the electoral process, courage, boldness, fearlessness, posi-
tive neutrality and non-alignment, observance of electoral law, rules, regu-
lations, procedures and modalities, openness, transparency, credibility and
unflinching support and cooperation of all stakeholders. These bench-
marks will be illustrated in the various chapters of this book.
Elections in African Developing Democracies, a synthesis of 45 years’
practical experience in the field of elections in my own country, Ghana,
with the United Nations and other international organizations, aims to
equip the reader or the election practitioner with universally accepted
norms and principles on election mechanisms and some of the intriguing
challenges in the conduct and supervision of elections in developing
democracies. These challenges may include, in addition to those indicated
above, paucity of resources, lack of technical know-how, strict adherence
to the law, procedures and modalities, and, as mentioned earlier, intimida-
tion, harassment, suspicion and governmental and external interferences.
This study covers the whole spectrum of the five dominant types of elec-
tions: that is, elections from colonial rule to independence; elections from
military to civilian rule; elections organized by international organizations
under special circumstances; parliamentary and presidential e­ lections after a
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

normal term of office; and local council and traditional authority elections.
The book is filled with practical examples and references to elections in
Africa, since Africa epitomizes underdevelopment and the world system.
Elections in African Developing Democracies proposes to deal with the
major phases of the electoral process, namely the putting in place of an
electoral law, demarcation of electoral boundaries, establishment of elec-
toral machinery, public education, registration of voters, registration of
political parties, political campaigning, public education, formulation and
implementation of any scheme of voter identification, election observation
and monitoring, the poll and the election petition.
Bullet points have been provided for the critical phases of the electoral
process, including the enactment of the electoral law, the establishment of
electoral machinery, registration of voters, the political campaign and the
poll itself.
Prominence has been given to the role of political parties, civic organi-
zations, traditional rulers and external partners in the organization, con-
duct and supervision of orderly, peaceful, clean, free and fair elections.
It must be emphasized that none of the phases in the electoral process,
from the putting in place of an electoral law to the adjudication of an elec-
tion, referendum or plebiscite petition, is of less significance. Every phase
is important, if a country is to achieve the objective of clean, free, fair,
credible and transparent elections, referenda or plebiscites.
Although rarely mentioned, public education in the conduct and super-
vision of acceptable elections is as important as any phase of the demo-
cratic electoral process. In Chap. 5 on the electoral process, a subsection
on public enlightenment has been devoted to public information, educa-
tion and awareness creation.
Emphasis is placed on the integrity of the process: cost reduction, and
blending indigenous cultural traditions into modern knowledge and
technology.
Guidelines on the selection of electoral staff and dos and don’ts for
electoral staff and the institution of security and control mechanisms will
also be discussed.
Although references will be made to the advantages and disadvantages
of single-member constituency and proportional representation systems,
much effort is made to move away from the technical niceties of electoral
systems. This work will unearth some of the weaknesses and intricacies in
the electoral process in developing democracies, with a view to polishing up
the process. Relevant cases have been cited under the election campaign,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Vast Deal of pleasure is Being intensely happy with a Dear
and Tender Mother-in-Law and frequent oppertunities of
hearing of your Health and Welfair which I pray God may long
Continue. What I have more to add is to acquaint you that I
have already made a Considerable Progress in Learning. I
have already gone through some Rules of Arithmetic, and in a
little Time shall be able of giving you a Better acct of my
Learning, and in mean time I am Duty Bound to subscribe
myself
Your most obedient and
Duty full Granddaughter
Pegga Treadwell.
In the Lloyd Collections is a charming little letter from another
Long Island miss, ten years of age. The penmanship is elegant and
finished, as was that of her elders at that date.
We have, however, scant sources from which to learn of the life of
children in colonial New York. No diarist of Pepysian minuteness tells
of the children of New Netherland as does the faithful Samuel Sewall
of those of New England; no collections of letters such as the
Winthrop Papers and others recount the various items of domestic
life. There are none of the pious and garrulous writings of ministers
such as Cotton Mather, who in diary and various literary
compositions give another side of their life. We have no such
messages from the colonial Dutch. In whatever depended on the use
of “a flourit pen,” posterity is neither richer nor wiser for the Dutch
settlers having lived. Nor were their English successors much fonder
of literary composition. Nothing but formal records of churches, of
courts, of business life, offer to us any pages for study and drawing
of inference. And from these records the next hint of the life of these
colonial children, sad to relate, is to their discredit. The pragmatic
magistrates kept up a steady prying and bullying over them. In New
Orange, in 1673, “if any children be caught on the street playing,
racing, and shouting previous to the termination of the last
preaching, the officers of justice may take their hat or upper garment,
which shall not be restored to the parents until they have paid a fine
of two guilders,” which, we may be sure, would insure the miserable
infants summary punishment on arriving home.
Matters were no better in New Amsterdam. One amusing
complaint was brought up against “ye wretched boys” of that
settlement, and by one high in authority, Schout De Sille. One of his
duties was to patrol the town of New Amsterdam at night to see that
all was peaceful as befitted a town which was the daughter of the
Dutch government. But the poor schout did not find his evening stroll
altogether a happy one. He complained that the dogs set upon him,
and that tantalizing boys shouted out “The Indians!” at him from
behind trees and fences,—which must have startled him sorely, and
have been most unpleasantly suggestive in those days of Indian
horrors; and his chief complaint was that there was “much cutting of
hoekies” by the boys,—which means, I fancy, playing of tricks, of
jokes, of hoaxes, such as were played on Hock-day in England, or
perhaps “playing hookey,” as American boys of to-day have been
known to do.
As years passed on, I fear some of these young Dutch-Americans
were sad rogues. They sore roused the wrath of Albany legislators,
as is hereby proven:—
“Whereas ye children of ye sd city do very unorderly to ye
shame and scandall of their parents ryde down ye hills in ye
streets of the sd city with small and great slees on the lord day
and in the week by which many accidents may come, now for
pventing ye same it is hereby publishd and declard yt it shall
and may be lawful for any Constable in this City or any other
person or persons to take any slee or slees from all and every
such boys and girls rydeing or offering to ryde down any hill
within ye sd city and breake any slee or slees in pieces. Given
under our hands and seals in Albany ye 22th of December in
12th year of Her Maj’s reign Anno Domini 1713.”
In 1728 Albany boys and girls still were hectored, still were fined
by the bullying Albany constable for sliding down the alluringly steep
Albany streets on “sleds, small boards, or otherwise.”
 Mrs. Grant, writing of about the year 1765, speaks of the custom
of coasting, but not of the legislation against it, and gives a really
delightful picture of coasting-joys, which apparently were then
partaken of only by boys. The schepens and their successors the
constables, joy-destroying Sivas, had evidently succeeded in
wresting this pleasure from the girls.
“In town all the boys were extravagantly fond of a diversion
that to us would appear a very odd and childish one. The
great street of the town sloped down from the hill on which the
fort stood, towards the river; between the buildings was an
unpaved carriage-road, the foot-path beside the houses being
the only part of the street which was paved. In winter the
sloping descent, continued for more than a quarter of a mile,
acquired firmness from the frost, and became very slippery.
Then the amusement commenced. Every boy and youth in
town, from eight to eighteen, had a little low sledge, made
with a rope like a bridle to the front, by which it could be
dragged after one by the hand. On this one or two at most
could sit, and this sloping descent being made as smooth as
a looking-glass, by sliders’ sledges, etc., perhaps a hundred
at once set out from the top of this street, each seated in his
little sledge with the rope in his hand, which, drawn to the
right or left, served to guide him. He pushed it off with a little
stick, as one would launch a boat; and then, with the most
astonishing velocity, precipitated by the weight of the owner,
the little machine glided past, and was at the lower end of the
street in an instant. What could be so delightful in this rapid
and smooth descent I could never discover; though in a more
retired place, and on a smaller scale, I have tried the
amusement; but to a young Albanian, sleighing, as he called
it, was one of the first joys of life, though attended by the
drawback of walking to the top of the declivity, dragging his
sledge every time he renewed his flight, for such it might well
be called. In the managing this little machine some dexterity
was necessary: an unskilful Phaeton was sure to fall. The
conveyance was so low that a fall was attended with little
danger, yet with much disgrace, for an universal laugh from all
 sides assailed the fallen charioteer. This laugh was from a
very full chorus, for the constant and rapid succession of this
procession, where every one had a brother, lover, or kinsman,
brought all the young people in town to the porticos, where
they used to sit wrapt in furs till ten or eleven at night,
engrossed by this delectable spectacle. I have known an
Albanian, after residing some years in Britain, and becoming
a polished fine gentleman, join the sport and slide down with
the rest.”
Mrs. Grant tells of another interesting and unusual custom of the
children of Albany:
“The children of the town were divided into companies, as
they called them, from five to six years of age, until they
became marriageable. How those companies first originated,
or what were their exact regulations, I cannot say; though I,
belonging to none, occasionally mixed with several, yet
always as a stranger, notwithstanding that I spoke their
current language fluently. Every company contained as many
boys as girls. But I do not know that there was any limited
number; only this I recollect, that a boy and girl of each
company, who were older, cleverer, or had some other pre-
eminence among the rest were called heads of the company,
and as such were obeyed by the others.... Children of
different ages in the same family belonged to different
companies. Each company at a certain time of the year went
in a body to gather a particular kind of berries to the hill. It
was a sort of annual festival attended with religious
punctuality. Every company had a uniform for this purpose;
that is to say, very pretty light baskets made by the Indians,
with lids and handles, which hung over one arm, and were
adorned with various colors. Every child was permitted to
entertain the whole company on its birthday, and once
besides, during winter and spring. The master and mistress of
the family always were bound to go from home on these
occasions, while some old domestic was left to attend and
watch over them, with an ample provision of tea, chocolate,
 preserved and dried fruits, nuts and cakes of various kinds, to
which was added cider or a syllabub; for these young friends
met at four and amused themselves with the utmost gayety
and freedom in any way their fancy dictated.”
From all the hints and facts which I have obtained, through letters,
diaries, church and court records, of child-life in any of the colonies
or provinces among English, German, Swedish, or Dutch settlers, I
am sure these Albany young folk were the most favored of their time.
I find no signs of such freedom in any other town.
It has been asserted that in every town in New York which was
settled under the Dutch, a school was established which was taught
by a competent teacher who received a small salary from the
government, in addition to his other emoluments; and that after the
reign of the English, begun in 1664, this public salary ceased, and
many of the towns were schoolless.
This statement is not confirmed by a letter of Domine
Megapolensis written from Albany in 1657. He says plainly that only
Manhattan, Beverwyck, and Fort Casimir had schoolmasters, and he
predicts, as a result, “ignorance, a ruined youth, and bewilderment of
men’s minds.” Other authorities, such as Mr. Teunis G. Bergen, state
that this liberality where it existed should be accredited to the Dutch
church, not the Dutch state, or Dutch West India Company. In truth, it
was all one matter. The church was an essential power in the
government of New Netherland, as it was in Holland; hence the West
India Company and the Classis of Amsterdam conjoined in sending
domines with the supply of burgomasters, and likewise furnished
school-teachers.
When Wouter van Twiller arrived in 1633 with the first military
garrison for New Amsterdam, he brought also envoys of religion and
learning,—Domine Everardus Bogardus and the first pedagogue,
Adam Roelandsen. Master Roelandsen had a schoolroom assigned
to him, and he taught the youthful New Amsterdamites for six years,
when he resigned his position, and was banished from the town and
went up the river to Renssellaerwyck. I fear he was not a very
reputable fellow, “people did not speak well of him;” and he in turn
was sued for slander; and some really sad scandals were told about
him, both in and out of court. And some folk have also made very
merry over the fact that he took in washing, which was really one of
the best things we know about him, for it was not at all a disreputable
nor unmanly calling in those times. It doubtless proved a very
satisfactory source of augmentation of the wavering school-salary, in
those days of vast quarterly or semi-annual washings and great
bleeckeryen, or laundries,—which his probably was, since his bills
were paid by the year.
A carpenter, Jan Cornelissen, tired of his tools and trade, left
Renssellaerwyck upon hearing of the vacant teacher’s chair in New
Amsterdam, went down the river to Manhattan, and in turn taught the
school for ten years. Jan was scarcely more reputable than Adam.
He lay drunk for a month at a time, and was incorrigibly lazy,—so
aggravated Albanians wrote of him. But any one was good enough to
teach school. Neither Jan nor Adam was, however, a convicted and
banished felon, as were many Virginian schoolmasters.
This drunken schoolmaster was only the first of many. Until this
century, the bane of pedagogy in New York was rum. A chorus of
colonial schoolmasters could sing, in the words of Goldsmith,—

“Let schoolmasters puzzle their brains

With grammar and nonsense and learning;
Good liquor I stoutly maintain
Gives genius a better discerning.”

Occasionally a certain schoolmaster would be specified in a

school-circular as a sober man; proving by the mentioning the
infrequency of the qualification.
As the colony grew, other teachers were needed. Governor
Stuyvesant sent to the Classis of Amsterdam for “a pious, well-
qualified, and diligent schoolmaster.” William Vestens crossed the
ocean in answer to this appeal, and taught for five years in one room
in New York; while Jan de la Montagne, with an annual salary of two
hundred florins, taught at the Harberg—later the Stadt-Huys—and
occupied the position of the first public-school teacher.
For years a project of building a schoolhouse was afloat. A spot
had been fixed upon, and some money subscribed. In 1649 the
Commonalty represented to the West India Company that “the plate
was a long time passed around for a common school which has
been built with words, for as yet the first stone is not laid.” In
response to this appeal, a schoolhouse was at last erected. Still
another school was opened by Master Hoboocken, who taught in the
Governors’ bowery, where Dutch-American children were already
beginning to throng the green lanes and by-ways. He was
succeeded by Evert Pietersen, who was engaged as “Consoler of
the Sick, Chorister and Schoolmaster;” and all persons without
distinction were ordered not to molest, disturb, or ridicule him in
either of these offices, but to “deliver him from every painful
sensation.” Many of the other schoolmasters had filled similar offices
in the church and community.
This public school, maintained with such difficulty and so many
rebuffs through these early days, was successfully continued by the
Collegiate Dutch Church after the English possession of New York;
and it still exists and flourishes, as does the church. This should be a
matter of civic pride to every New Yorker. The history of that school
has been carefully written, and is most interesting to read.
Many other teachers were licensed to give private lessons, but
these public and private schools did not satisfy ambitious New
Yorkers. A strong longing was felt in New Amsterdam for a Latin
School. A characteristic petition was sent by the burgomasters and
schepens to the West India Company:
“It is represented that the youth of this place and the
neighborhood are increasing in number gradually, and that
most of them can read and write, but that some of the citizens
and inhabitants would like to send their children to a school
the principal of which understands Latin, but are not able to
do so without sending them to New England; furthermore,
they have not the means to hire a Latin schoolmaster
 expressly for themselves from New England, and therefore
they ask that the West India Company will send out a fit
person as Latin schoolmaster, not doubting that the number of
persons who will send their children to such a teacher will
from year to year increase until an academy shall be formed
whereby this place to great splendour will have attained, for
which, next to God, the Honorable Company which shall have
sent such teacher here shall have laud and praises. For our
own part we shall endeavor to find a fit place in which the
schoolmaster shall hold his school.”
The desired “gerund-grinder”—to use Tristram Shandy’s word—
was soon despatched. The fit place was found,—a good house with
a garden. He was promised an annual salary of five hundred
guilders. Each scholar also was to pay six guilders per quarter. But
Dr. Curtius’s lines fell in difficult places; he could keep no order
among his Latin-school pupils, those bad young New
Amsterdamites, who “beat each other and tore the clothes from each
other’s backs,” and he complained he was restrained by the orders
of parents from properly punishing them. (I may say here that I have
not found that New York schoolmasters were ever as cruel as were
those of New England.) A graver matter to honest colonists was his
charging a whole beaver-skin too much per quarter to some
scholars, and soon he was packed back to Holland. His successor, a
young man of twenty-two, who had been tutor to Stuyvesant’s sons,
had better luck, better control, and a better academy; and New
Amsterdam to “great splendour was attained,” having pupils from
other towns and colonies, even from so far away as Virginia.
The relations between church, school, and state were equally
close throughout all New Netherland. Thus, in 1661, Governor
Stuyvesant recommended Charles De Bevoise as schoolmaster for
Brooklyn; and when Domine Henricus Selyns left the Brooklyn
church, Schoolmaster De Bevoise was ordered to read prayers and
sermons, “to read a postille” every Sabbath until another minister
was obtained. He was also a krankebesoecker, or comforter of the
sick. Even after the establishment of English rule in the colony, the
connection of Dutch church and school was equally close. When
Johannis Van Eckellen was engaged by the Consistory of the Dutch
church in Flatbush in October, 1682, as a schoolmaster for the town,
it was under this extremely interesting and minute contract, which,
translated, reads thus:—
Articles of Agreement made with Johannis Van
Eckellen, schoolmaster and clerk of the church at Flatbush.
1st. The school shall begin at eight o’clock in the morning,
and go out at eleven o’clock. It shall begin again at one
o’clock and end at four o’clock. The bell shall be rung before
the school begins.
2nd. When the school opens, one of the children shall read
the morning prayer, as it stands in the catechism, and close
with the prayer before dinner. In the afternoon it shall begin
with the prayer after dinner, and close with the evening
prayer. The evening school shall begin with the Lord’s Prayer,
and close by singing a Psalm.
3rd. He shall instruct the children in the common prayers
and the questions and answers of the catechism, on
Wednesdays and Saturdays, to enable them to say their
catechism on Sunday afternoons in the church before the
afternoon service, otherwise on the Monday following, at
which the schoolmaster shall be present. He shall demean
himself patient and friendly towards the children in their
instruction, and be active and attentive to their improvement.
4th. He shall be bound to keep his school nine months in
succession, from September to June, one year with another,
or the like period of time for a year, according to the
agreement with his predecessor, he shall, however, keep the
school nine months, and always be present himself.

CHURCH SERVICE.
Art. 1st. He shall be chorister of the church, ring the bell
three times before service, and read a chapter of the Bible in
the church, between the second and third ringing of the bell;
after the third ringing he shall read the ten commandments
and the twelve articles of Faith, and then set the Psalm. In the
afternoon, after the third ringing of the bell, he shall read a
short chapter, or one of the Psalms of David, as the
congregation are assembling. Afterwards he shall again set
the Psalm.
Art. 2nd. When the minister shall preach at Brooklyn or
New Utrecht, he shall be bound to read twice before the
congregation a sermon from the book used for the purpose.
The afternoon sermon will be on the catechism of Dr. Vander
Hagen, and thus he shall follow the turns of the minister. He
shall hear the children recite the questions and answers of the
catechism, on that Sunday, and he shall instruct them. When
the minister preaches at Flatlands, he shall perform the like
service.
Art. 3rd. He shall provide a basin of water for the baptisms,
for which he shall receive twelve stuyvers, in wampum, for
every baptism, from the parents or sponsors. He shall furnish
bread and wine for the communion, at the charge of the
church. He shall furnish the minister, in writing, the names
and ages of the children to be baptized, together with the
names of the parents and sponsors; he shall also serve as a
messenger for the consistories.
Art. 4th. He shall give the funeral invitations, and toll the
bells, for which service he shall receive, for persons of fifteen
years of age and upwards, twelve guilders; and for persons
under fifteen, eight guilders. If he shall invite out of the town,
he shall receive three additional guilders for every town; and if
he shall cross the river to New York, he shall have four
guilders more.

SCHOOL MONEY.
He shall receive for a speller or reader in the day school
three guilders for a quarter, and for a writer four guilders.
 In the evening school, he shall receive for a speller or
reader four guilders for a quarter, and for a writer five guilders.

SALARY.
The remainder of his salary shall be four hundred guilders
in wheat, of wampum value, deliverable at Brooklyn Ferry;
and for his service from October to May, two hundred and
thirty-four guilders in wheat, at the same place, with the
dwelling, pasturage, and meadow appertaining to the school
to begin the first day of October.
I agree to the above articles, and promise to observe the
same to the best of my ability.
Johannis Van Eckellen.
Truly we have through this contract—to any one with any powers
of historic imagination—a complete picture of the duties of the
schoolmaster of that day.
When the English came in power in 1664, some changes were
made in matters of education in New York, but few changes in any of
the conditions in Albany. Governor Nicholls, on his first visit up the
river, made one significant appointment,—that of an English
schoolmaster. This was the Englishman’s license to teach:—
“Whereas the teaching of the English Tongue is necessary
in this Government; I have, therefore, thought fitt to give
License to John Shutte to bee the English Schoolmaster at
Albany: and upon condition that the said John Shutte shall not
demand any more wages from each Scholar than is given by
the Dutch to their Dutch Schoolmasters. I have further
granted to the said John Shutte that hee shall bee the only
English Schoolmaster at Albany.”
The last clause of this license seems superfluous; for it is very
doubtful whether there was for many years any other English teacher
who eagerly sought what was so far from being either an onerous or
lucrative position. Many generations of Albany children grew to
manhood ere the Dutch schoolmasters found their positions
supererogatory.
Women-teachers and girl-scholars were of small account in New
York in early days. Girls did, however, attend the public schools. We
find Matthew Hillyer, in 1676, setting forth in New York that he “hath
kept school for children of both sexes for two years past to
satisfaction.” Dame-schools existed, especially on Long Island,
where English influences and Connecticut emigration obtained. In
Flushing Elizabeth Cowperthwait was reckoned with in 1681 for
“schooling and diet for children;” and in 1683 she received for thirty
weeks’ schooling, of “Martha Johanna,” a scarlet petticoat,—truly a
typical Dutch payment. A school bill settled by John Bowne in
Flushing in 1695 shows that sixpence a week was paid to the
teacher for each scholar who learned reading, while writing and
ciphering cost one shilling twopence a week. This, considering the
usual wages and prices of the times, was fair pay enough.
We have access to a detailed school bill of the Lloyd boys in 1693,
but they were sent away from their Long Island home at Lloyd’s
Neck to New England; so the information is of no value as a record
of a New York school; but one or two of these items are curious
enough to be recounted:—
£ s. d.
1 Quarter’s board for boys 9 7 6
Pd knitting stockings for Joseph 1 4
Pd knitting 1 stocking for Henry 6
Joseph’s Schooling, 7 mos. 7
A bottle of wine for His Mistris 10
To shoo nails & cutting their har 7
Stockins & mittins 3 9
Pd a woman tailor mending their cloaths 3 3
Wormwood & rubab for them 6
To Joseph’s Mistris for yearly feast and wine 1 8
 Pair gloves for boys 2 6
Drest deerskin for the boys’ breeches 1 6
Wormwood and rhubarb for the boys and a feast and wine for the
schoolmistress, albeit the wine was but tenpence a bottle, seems
somewhat unfair discrimination.
There is an excellent list of the clothing of a New York schoolboy
of eleven years given in a letter written by Fitz-John Winthrop to
Robert Livingstone in 1690. This young lad, John Livingstone, had
also been in school in New England. The “account of linen & clothes”
shows him to have been very well dressed. It reads thus:—

Eleven new shirts

4 pr laced sleves
8 plane cravets
4 cravets with lace
4 stripte wastecoats with black buttons
1 flowered wastecoat
4 new osinbrig britches
1 gray hat with a black ribbon
1 gray hat with a blew ribbon
1 dousin black buttons
1 dousin coloured buttons
3 pr gold buttons
3 pr silver buttons
2 pr fine blew stockings
1 pr fine red stockins
4 white handkerchiefs
2 speckled handkerchiefs
 3 pair gloves
1 stuff coat with black buttons
1 cloth coat
1 pr blew plush britches
1 pr serge britches
2 combs
1 pr new shoees
Silk & thred to mend his clothes.

In 1685 Goody Davis taught a dame-school at Jamaica; and in

1687 Rachel Spencer died in Hempstead, and her name was
recorded as that of a schoolmistress. In 1716, at the Court of
Sessions in Westchester, one of the farm-wives, Dame Shaw,
complained that “a travelling woman who came out of ye Jerseys
who kept school at several places in Rye parish, hath left with her a
child eleven months old, for which she desires relief from the parish.”
It is easy to fancy a vague romance through this short record of
the life of this nameless “travelling woman” who, babe in arms,
earned a scanty living by teaching, and who at last abandoned the
school and the child whose birth may, perhaps, have sent her a
nameless wanderer in a strange country,—for “the Jerseys” were far
away from Rye parish in those days.
There was a schoolmistress in Hempstead at a later date. She
was old in 1774. I don’t know her name, but I know of the end of her
days. The vestry allowed her forty shillings, “to be dealt out to her a
little at a time, so as to last her all winter.” She lived through that
luxurious winter, and died in 1775. Her coffin cost twelve shillings,
and Widow Thurston was paid six shillings for digging the grave for
her old crony and gossip. Schoolmistresses were not many on Long
Island,—can we wonder at it? Had this dame been one of the
penniless church-poor in a Dutch community (which Hempstead was
not), she would probably have had forty shillings a month instead of
a winter, and a funeral that would have been not only decent in all
the necessities of a funeral, but a triumph of prodigality in all the
comforts and pleasures of the mortuary accompaniments of the day,
such as wine, rum, beer, cakes, tobacco, and pipes.
The “book-learning” afforded to colonial girls in New York was
certainly very meagre. Mrs. Anne Grant wrote of the first quarter of
the eighteenth century:—
“It was at that time very difficult to procure the means of
instruction in those island districts; female education was, of
consequence, conducted on a very limited scale; girls learned
needlework (in which they were indeed both skilful and
ingenious) from their mothers and aunts; they were taught,
too, at that period to read, in Dutch, the Bible, and a few
Calvinistic tracts of the devotional kind. But in the infancy of
the settlement few girls read English; when they did, they
were thought accomplished; they generally spoke it, however
imperfectly, and few were taught writing.”
William Smith, the historian of New York, writing during the year
1756 of his fellow townswomen, and of education in general in New
York, gives what was doubtless a true picture of the inelegance of
education in New York:—
“There is nothing they [New York women] so generally
neglect as Reading, and indeed all the Arts for the
improvement of the Mind, in which I confess we have set
them the Example. Our Schools are in the Lowest Order, the
Instructors want Instruction, and through a long, shameful
neglect of the Arts and Sciences our Common Speech is very
corrupt, and the Evidences of a Bad Taste both as to thought
and Language are visible in all our Proceedings publick and
private.”
One obstacle to the establishment and success of schools and
education was the hybridization of language. New Yorkers spoke
neither perfect Dutch nor good English. It was difficult in some
townships to gather an English-speaking jury; hence, naturally,
neither tongue could be taught save in the early and simpler stages
of education. It was difficult for those little Dutch-men who heard
Holland-Dutch spoken constantly at home to abandon it entirely and
speak English in the schools. The Flatbush master (himself a
Dutchman, but bound to teach English) invented an ingenious plan
to crowd out the use of Dutch in school. He carried a little metal
token which he gave each day to the first scholar whom he heard
use a Dutch word. That scholar could promptly turn the token over to
any other scholar whom he likewise detected in using Dutch, and he
in turn could do the same. Thus the token passed from hand to hand
through the day; but the unlucky wight who chanced to have
possession of it when the school day was over was soundly
whipped.
In default of “spilling,” as one master wrote in his receipts, and in
which he was somewhat shaky himself, he and all other colonial
teachers took a firm stand on “cyphering.” “The Bible and figgers is
all I want my boys to know,” said one old farmer. When the school
session opened and closed, as we have seen in Flatbush, with
prayer and praise, with catechism every day, and special catechising
twice a week, even “figgers” did not have much of a chance. All the
old Dutch primers that I have seen, the Groot A B C boeks zeer
bekwaam voor de yongekinderen te leeren, contain nothing (besides
the alphabet) but religious sentences, prayers, verses of the Bible,
pious rhymes, etc.; and dingy little books they are, not even up to the
standard of our well-known New England Primer.
Though the Dutch were great printers of horn-books, I do not find
that they were universal users of those quaint little “engines of
learning.” If used in Dutch-American schools, none now survive the
lapse of two centuries; and indeed only one can be found in a
Holland museum. Mr. Tuer, the historian of the horn-book, states that
there is one in the museum at Antwerp, printed by H. Walpot, of
Dordrecht, Netherlands, in 1640; and a beautiful silver-backed Dutch
horn-book in the collection of an English clergyman at Coombe
Place, England; and a few others in public libraries that are probably
Dutch. Dutch artists show, by their frequent representations of horn-
books in paintings of children, that the little a-b-boordje was well
known. In the “Christ blessing Little Children,” by Rembrandt, the
presentment of a child has a horn-book hanging at his side. In
several pictures by Jan Steen, 1626-79, horn-books may be noted;
in one a child has hung his horn-book on a parrot’s perch while he
plays. In 1753 English children used horn-books in New York as in
the other provinces, for they were advertised with Bibles and primers
in the New York newspapers at that time.
Printed arithmetics were rarely used or seen. Schoolmasters
carried with them carefully executed “sum-books” in manuscript,
from which scholars copied the sums and rules into small blank-
books of their own. One, of a Gravesend scholar in 1754, has
evidently served to prove the pupil’s skill both in arithmetic and
penmanship. The book is prefaced by instructive aphorisms, such as
“Carefully mind to mend in every line;” “Game not in school when
you should write.” The wording of the rules is somewhat curious.
One reads:—
“Rule of Bartar, which is for exchanging of ware, One
Commodity for another. This Rule shows the Merchants how
they may Proportion their Goods so that neither of them may
sustain loss. Sum. Two Merchants A. and B. bartar. A. hath
320 Dozen of Candles @ ⁴⁄₆ per Dozen; for which B. giveth
him £30 in Cash and ye Rest in Cotton @ 8d per lb. I demand:
how much Cotton B. must give A. more than the £30 in Cash.”
As commerce increased and many young men sought a seafaring
life, navigation was taught, and advanced mathematics. In 1749 the
notice of a Brooklyn “Philomath” on Nassau Island shows that he
could teach “Arithmetick vulgar and decimal; Geometry plain and
Spherical; Surveying, Navigation in 3 kinds, viz: Plain Mercator and
Great Circle Sailing, Astronomy, and Dialling.” Thus did this
Philomath meet the demand of the day. In 1773 the Flatbush
Grammar School was taught by John Copp, who also took scholar-
boarders, who “have the advantage of being taught geography in the
winter evenings, with many other useful particulars that frequently
occur to the teacher,” which seems to present a rather melancholy
picture when we reflect on the other particulars of good coasting and
skating that then were around Flatbush, on the Steenbakkery for
instance, which, doubtless, would frequently occur on winter
evenings to the scholar-boarder.
 CHAPTER III
WOOING AND WEDDING

The domestic life of the Dutch settlers flowed on in a smooth-

running and rather dull stream, varying little through either honor-
bearing or discreditable incident from day to day. Any turbulence of
dissension or divorce between husband and wife was apparently
little known and certainly little noted. Occasionally an entry which
tells of temporary division or infelicity can be unearthed from the
dingy pages of some old court-record, thereby disclosing a scene
and actors so remote, so shadowy, so dimmed with the dust of
centuries, that the incident often bears no semblance of having
happened to real living folk, but seems rather to pertain to a group of
inanimate puppets. One of these featureless, colorless, stiff Dutch
marionettes is Anneke, the daughter of boisterous old Domine
Schaets, the first minister at Fort Orange. A fleeting glimpse of her
marital infelicity is disclosed through the record of her presence in
Albany under the shadow of some unexplained and now forgotten
scandal. To satisfy her father’s virtuous and severe congregation,
she refrained from contaminating attendance at Communion. The
domine resented this condition of affairs, and refused to appear
before the Consistory though summoned four times by the bode. He
persisted in irritatingly “ripping up new differences and offences;” and
he disregarded with equal scorn the summons of a magistrate to
appear before the Court; and he was therefore suspended from his
clerical office. All was at last “arranged in love and friendship,”
leaving out the dispute about “Universal Grace,” which I suppose
could not be settled; but daughter Anneke was ordered off to New
York to her husband, “with a letter of recommendation; and as she
was so headstrong, and would not depart without the Sheriff’s and
Constable’s interference, her disobedience was annexed to the
letter.” It is pleasing to know, from the record of an “Extraordinary
Court holden in Albany” a month later,—in July, 1681,—of a very
satisfactory result in the affairs of the young couple.
“Tho: Davidtse promisses to conduct himself well and
honorably towards his wife Anneke Schaets, to Love and
never neglect her, but faithfully and properly to maintain and
support her with her children according to his means, hereby
making null and void all questions that have occurred and
transpired between them both, never to repeat them, but are
entirely reconciled: and for better assurance of his real
Intention and good Resolution to observe the same, he
requests that two good men be named to oversee his conduct
at New York towards his said wife, being entirely disposed
and inclined to live honorably and well with her as a Christian
man ought, subjecting himself willingly to the rule and censure
of the said men. On the other hand his wife Anneke Schaets,
promisses also to conduct herself quietly and well and to
accompany him to New York with her children and property,
not to leave him any more, but to serve and help him and with
him to share the sweets and the sours as becomes a
Christian spouse: Requesting all differences which had ever
existed between them both may be hereby quashed and
brought no more to light or cast up, as she on her side is
heartily disposed to. Their Worship of the Court Recommend
parties on both Sides to observe strictly their Reconciliation
now made, and the gentleman at New York will be informed
that the matter is so far arranged.”
We can certainly add the profound hope, after all this quarrelling
and making up, after all those good promises, that Anneke’s home
was no longer “unregulated and poorly kept,” as was told of her by
the Labadist travellers during their visit to Albany at that time. The
appointing of “two good men” as arbitrators or overseers of conduct
was very usual in such cases; thereby public adjustment in open
court of such quarrels was avoided.
Tender parents could not unduly shelter a daughter who had left
her husband’s bed and board. He could promptly apply to the court
for an order for her return to him, and an injunction to her parents