Ghana’s successful conduct of elections 2008 which led to the peaceful transfer of power from the ruling New Patriotic Party to the then opposition National Democratic Congress is not a pointer to a working and functioning democracy, experts have said. Rather, a solution-oriented government, an active citizen participation, gender equity among others must be the yardstick to measuring the success and or failure of Ghana’s democracy. These were the concerns of Dr. Kwasi Jonah, Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Kojo Asante of the Centre for Democratic Development, Roselyn Musa Bio of the African Women’s … and Mr. Lloyd Amoah of the Ashesi University when they appeared on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday to shed more light on Ghana’s democracy as the world celebrates Democracy Day. The panel in unanimity agreed that Ghana has made giant strides in consolidating her democracy but believe a lot more needs to be done especially by policy makers and government officials. They believe the current democratic structure appears a bit too elitist, creating a disconnect with the masses. Mr. Amoah explained that the growth of slums across the country, and the seeming indiscipline by some of the youth is enough testament to a disenchanted group who have been cut off from the democratic framework. He said political parties must desist from behaving as election machines for that will mean that they become relevant only when it is time for elections. He added, the parties must go a step further to inculcate in their followers a level of political consciousness, and to make them understand policy issues. Mr. Amoah chided the tendency for political leaders to seek their own interest at the expense of the supreme national interest. Dr. Kwasi Jonah implored the political parties to undertake huge internal reforms which will inure to the benefit of the country. Like the expansion of the NPP delegates from 2,000, to over 100,000 for purposes of electing party executive and flagbearers, Dr. Jonah said similar actions must be taken by other parties to entrench the country’s democracy. He said Ghana for most parts of its independence has been under military, autocratic regimes where the rights of individual citizens have been violated and taken for granted. It is therefore imperative that under the new democratic regime, citizens must be empowered to assert themselves and be able to hold the policy-makers and government officials accountable irrespective of the political parties they belong to. Roselyn Bio on her part, said the limited number of women in both central and local government is telling on the poor performance of country’s democracy. She said government officials must give way to new ideas when theirs is on a “diminishing returns.”