Managing Election- Relation Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana more executive power than the actual ministries(Gyimah-Boadi, 2009). Operatives in such positions are able to place party loyalists and other supporters in roles that they may not be qualified for. Both the NPP and NDC governments, without fail on assuming power, have replaced officials appointed by the previous government to head governmental institutions. This has deprived the country of much needed competence, and change rather than continuity characterises the overall development of the nation. When the NPP government took over in 2000 for instance, most of the NDC loyalists at post either'sacked' themselves or were relieved of their duties since the NPP government had long been in the political'wilderness' and therefore it was their time to'chop'. Similarly, in 2008, the NDC followed'due process' by repeating the trend – despite the assertions by President Mills on the campaign platform that his was a government of national unity that would make use of national resources evenly and judiciously distributed(Bonney, 2008: 17). There was much urging on this score by a rather impatient ex-President Rawlings who lamented the slow pace of ridding the country of allegedly corrupt NPP officials(Daabu, 2009). Until Ghana develops a system whereby such positions are filled without the coloration of party affiliation, the current system will perpetuate itself and the much coveted democracy and good governance will only be a window dressing. The centralization of power in the presidency has also meant that clientelistic access to state resources is highly concentrated in the presidency(van de Walle, 2003). Because of the vast networks of economic and political patronage that the presidency controls, to be outside this system closes off many opportunities 189