ABSTRACT
The chapter offers an analysis of the growing phenomenon of election prophecies in Ghana. These are public pre-election declarations pertaining to the outcome of national elections by religious clerics who attribute their revelations to the will of God. The chapter looks into why Pentecostal-charismatic leaders tend to engage in the practice and it examines the impact of electoral prophecies by Pentecostal-charismatic pastors on political stability. Using prophetic declarations of Pentecostal-charismatic pastors between 2013 and 2016, the chapter argues that prophecies potentially exacerbate existing mistrust in the electoral process and identity politics, and thereby have the potential to impact negatively on the political stability of the country. The study concludes by inviting scholars to pay further attention to the spiritual, and its own use, within and by political parties and to better understand connections between religion and post-election conflict across the Africa continent. Although Pentecostalism has the potential to bring radical transformation in Africa, interacting in multiparty elections and democratic processes may increase political instability as in the Ghanaian case.
