Background
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses people to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Most organizations and institutions adopt a representative or delegate system of governance. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) chooses its leaders through a delegate system.
According to Żukowski (2004), the function of delegating political representation allows voters to select those individuals who, in their view, seem to be the best representatives. As a result of the democratic authority to exercise control, elected persons have the necessary legitimacy to make decisions on behalf of the public, and their decisions have the same value of validity. The practical will of shifting decision-making from all those qualified to representatives may be due to three key reasons: (1) to increase the efficiency of decision-making, (2) presupposition that those elected persons have higher competencies than the average person, and this will positively affect the accuracy of their decisions, (3) to give a higher degree of importance to the decisions made, and thus increase their common effect.
Organizations such as the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) exist, to among other things, offer its members a voice and to shape and drive social policies. To be able to keep governments on its toes, the association sets out to be independent of every government, self-governing and not subject to the control of any political party, ideological or religious grouping. It further enjoins its Elected Officers and Full-time Staff not to engage in partisan politics.
Problem Statement
An election that delivers credible outcomes is one that thrives on tried and tested methods. GNAT’s current electoral system is too vulnerable and open to manipulation by either members with vested interest or its external publics.
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WP:
The above piece is an extract of a proposal I sent to the General Secretary of GNAT on August 31, 2021.