http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 10, No. 3; 2019 Published by Sciedu Press 174 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Political Economy Analysis of Voter Participation and Choices in National Elections in Ghana’s Fourth Republican Era Kwabena Asomanin Anaman 1 & Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari 2 1 Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana 2 Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana Correspondence: Kwabena Asomanin Anaman, Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. Received: September 9, 2019 Accepted: October 9, 2019 Online Published: November 29, 2019 doi:10.5430/rwe.v10n3p174 URL: https://doi.org/10.5430/rwe.v10n3p174 Abstract We analysed the determinants of voter participation (turnout), impairment of voter participation (spoiled or rejected ballots), and the outcomes (share of the total valid votes cast garnered by the victorious political party) in national presidential elections during the Fourth Republican era in Ghana. This analysis was undertaken based on meso-level statistical models, using district-level data of voters compiled from constituency-level data maintained by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, and district-level socio-economic characteristics derived from the 2010 and 2000 National Population Censuses conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service. In essence, we used data from two presidential elections in Ghana in 2000 and 2012 which could be directly aligned to data from the 2000 and 2010 national population censuses for district-level analysis using the concept of an average “district” voter. Our analysis indicated that the voter turnout was determined by a number of factors, the most important one being the population aged 15 over; the turnout decreases with increasing population. The impairment of voter participation, based on the proportion of the total votes cast attributed to spoiled ballots, was linked to the literacy rate with the spoiled ballots proportion declining with increasing literacy rate. The share of the total valid votes cast, obtained by the victorious party in a district, was influenced to a large degree by the proportion of the total number of citizens in a district belonging to the two biggest social/ethnic groups in Ghana, Asantes and Ewes, who predominantly voted in a countervailing manner for the parties that their political class elites dominate, the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress, respectively. Keywords: Africa, democracy, ethnicity, Ghana, kokofu game, marginalization, political economy of elections, rejected ballots, social exclusion, spoiled ballots, voter choices, voter turnout 1. Introduction 1.1 Overview of History of Ghana Ghana, formerly called the Gold Coast, is a Republic in West Africa, with a population of about 30 million, derived from projections of data from Ghana Statistical Service (2013), based on annual population growth rate of 2.5%. Though the Gold Coast area has been inhabited by human beings for at least 30,000 years (Davidson, 1972), a Gold Coast-named State-entity first emerged on 6 March 1844 when 17 traditional African states in the Gold Coast area of West Africa voluntarily signed a security treaty with the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain to defend themselves against other African traditional states, and also to defend themselves against non-British European nation states and their allied African traditional states, trading in the Gold Coast area (Ellis, 1894). (Note 1) This security treaty was signed during the final phase of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade lasted for 400 years from the 16 th Century to the 19 th Century. This trade in human beings led to an amplification of existing intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic conflicts in Africa (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2019). The Gold Coast area, and its hinterlands, including the current northern Ghana, were major epicentres of this trade which created unusually high levels of intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic conflicts. It was within this 400-year period of slave trade that many current West African kingdoms emerged and/or