Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 118 The manifest internal conflicts have dissipated the Ghanaian parties' energies to assist in conflict resolution in other West African countries. The excessive polarisation not only of national debates but also issues of international importance for the successful regional integration has contributed to the lack of implementations of some important ECOWAS protocols that have far reaching implications for Ghana's relations with her neighbours 140 . This is oftentimes fuelled by ideological polarisation that has proved to be divisive to Ghana's search for peaceful political processes as a prerequisite for regional peace and harmony. The perennial inter-party conflict exemplified by the lack of consensus over national debates in Parliament reveals sharp ideological cleavages. This way, common direction regarding the ruling party's foreign policy goals sometimes proves difficult to achieve. If the opposition parties' criticisms do not lead to alternatives, then the political discourse becomes more complicated. Political carnages in West Africa that increased in the early 1990s were partly due to the lack of consensus among parties regarding the solution to the future directions of the countries 141 . This position was the subject of discussion and conclusion made at the First West African Regional Conference of Political Parties held at Accra on July 2005. Among others, the participants that comprised leading party figures from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo recognized the essentiality of'government of consensus' and recommended that'government and opposition must see themselves as partners in governance and development'(IEA 2005:9). Frequent dialogues among the parties at all levels of politics as well as compromises on what should constitute the national good may go a long way to dissipate conflict occurrences among partiers(IEA 2006: 50). In a heterogeneous Ghanaian society, overcoming the problem of ethnic parochialism, separatism, minority alienation and sectionalism means broadening political participation and access to resources, among others. The politics of factionalism steeped in ethnic sentimentalism has been divisive and obstructive to the integration agenda. Over the years, electoral campaigns have been characterized by recourse to ethnic mobilisation. The appeal to tribal feelings in order to win elections has affected post-election exercise of mandate. The politics of winner-takes-all also means that the opposition would have to wait for their turn. Therefore losing elections means undergoing political alienation. These practices have tended to reduce politics into a zero sum game thereby undermining peaceful post-election political bargaining – a development that has affected the parties' ability to secure a common platform to prosecute'a united ECOWAS agenda and programmes' 142 . 140 . See K. Ahwoi speaking on'Political Tolerance and Power Sharing in a Multi-Party Democracy', in IEA, Ice Breaker Meeting Between the Chairmen of Ghanaian Political Parties and their Counterparts from Sierra Leone: Growing Democracy in the Sub-Region(Accra: IEA, 2006), pp. 28-30. 141 . Ibid, p. 29. 142 . See IEA, Conference of Political Parties in Sub-Saharan Africa: Consolidating Democracy on the Continent, Accra: IEA, 2007, pp. 45-47.