Elections In Ghana; From 1960 to 2012 Who Goes To Jubilee House?

Ghana elects on national level a head of state , the president, and a legislature. The president is elected for a four-year term by the people. The Parliament of Ghana has 275 members, elected for a four-year term in single-seat constituencies .^]

The presidential election is won by having more than 50% of valid votes cast, whilst the parliamentary elections is won by simple majority, and, as is predicted by Duverger’s law , the voting system has encouraged Ghanaian politics into a two-party system , creating extreme difficulty for anybody attempting to achieve electoral success under any banner other than those of the two dominant parties. Elections have been held every four years since 1992. Presidential and parliamentary elections are held alongside each other, generally on 7 December. 1960 electio

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Presidential elections were held for the first time in Ghana on 27 April 1960. The elections were held alongside a referendum on creating an executive presidency . The winner of the election would become the country’s first President if the new republican constitution was passed (which it did).

There were only two candidates in the election: Kwame Nkrumah , incumbent Prime Minister and leader of the Convention People’s Party and J. B. Danquah , United Party.

Kwame Nkrumah won the polls by getting 1,016,075 votes or 89.07% with J. B. Danquah garnering 124,623 or 10.93%.

Registered voters 2,098,651 voters. 1969 election

Ghanaian parliamentary election was held on 29 August 1969. This was the first parliamentary election since the 1966 coup which toppled the Nkrumah government .

The election was to select members for the 140 seat legislative body and was won by the Progress Party led by Kofi Abrefa Busia who became the Prime Minister of Ghana .

Kofi Abrefa Busia and Progress Party garnered 877,310 votes and 105 seats; Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and National Alliance of Liberals got 463,401 votes and 19 seats.

Registered voters 2,362,665 and turnout of voters was 1,493,371

1979 election General elections were held in Ghana on 18 June 1979, with a second round of the presidential election on 9 July 1979. The presidential election resulted in victory for Hilla Limann of the People’s National Party , who received 62.0% of the votes in the run-off. Hilla Limann of the People’s National Party -631,559 votes; Victor Owusu of Popular Front Party – 533,928 Second Round: Hilla Limann – 1,118,305; Victor

Owusu – 686,097 Voter turnout – 1,804,402 1992 election

Presidential elections were held in Ghana on 3 November 1992. The result was a victory for Jerry John Rawlings, who won 58.4% of the vote.

Jerry John Rawlings represented The Progressive Alliance, a coalition of the National Democratic Congress, the National Convention Party and Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE) garnered 2,323,135 votes; Albert Adu Boahen of New Patriotic Party – 1,204,764 votes.

Registered voters 7,401,370 and turnout of voters was 3,978,070. 1996 election

General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 1996. The presidential election resulted in a victory for the incumbent, Jerry Rawlings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Jerry Rawlings (NDC) – 4,101,674; John Kufuor (NPP) – 2,829,726

Registered voters 9,279,605 and turnout of voters was 7,266,693. 2000 election

General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2000, with a second round of the presidential election on 28 December. The presidential elections resulted in a victory for John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The election marked the first transfer of power via the ballot box in the country’s history. John Kufuor (NPP) – 3,131,739; John Atta Mills (NDC) – 2,895,575 votes. Since no candidate received more than 50% of the votes, a run-off election was held.                         Second Round Results: John Kufuor – 3,631,263; John Atta Mills – 2,750,124 Registered voters 10,698,652 and turnout of voters was 6,605,084 2004 election General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2004. The presidential elections resulted in a victory for incumbent John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

John Kufuor of New Patriotic Party – 4,524,074 votes; John Atta Mills of National Democratic Congress -3,850,368 votes Registered voters 10,354,970 and turnout of voters was 8,313,908 2008 election

General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2008. Since no candidate received more than 50% of the votes, a run-off election was held on 28 December 2008 between the two candidates who received the most votes, Nana Akufo-Addo and John Atta Mills .

Mills was certified as the victor in the run-off election on January 3, 2009, by a margin of less than one percent. It is to date the closest election in Ghanaian history. John Atta Mills of National Democratic Congress – 4,070,889; Nana Akufo-Addo of New Patriotic Party – 4,204,073.

Second round results: John Atta Mills – 4,527,909; Nana Akufo-Addo – 4,443,654 Registered voters 12,472,758 and turnout of voters was 9,094,364 2012 election

General election was held in Ghana on Friday 7 December 2012. Owing to the breakdown of some biometric verification machines, some voters could not vote, and voting was extended to Saturday 8 December 2012.

John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress was declared winner of the election with 50.7% of the vote.

The opposition New Patriotic Party filed a petition at the Ghanaian Supreme Court to review the election results. The petition failed.

John Dramani Mahama

(NDC) – 5,573,572; Nana Akufo-Addo (NPP) – 5,263,286. Registered voters 14,158,890 and turnout of voters was 11,246,982. 2016 election?

John Dramani Mahama (NDC) – ???
Nana Akufo-Addo (NPP) – ???
 

 
 
 
Profile of leading Candidates
John Dramani Mahama (NDC)
John Dramani Mahama was born in Damongo on 29 November 1958. He hails from Bole in the Northern region. His father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama , a wealthy rice farmer and teacher, was the first Member of Parliament for the West Gonja constituency and the first Regional Commissioner of the Northern Region during the First Republic under Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah .

Mahama had his early education at Achimota School and then proceeded to Ghana Secondary School ( Tamale , Northern region ) and the University of Ghana , Legon , receiving a bachelor’s degree in history in 1981 and a postgraduate diploma in communication studies in 1986.

He also studied at the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow in the Soviet Union , specializing in social psychology; he obtained a postgraduate degree in 1988.

After completing his undergraduate education, Mahama taught for a few years. Upon his return to Ghana after studying in Moscow , he worked as the Information, Culture and Research Officer at the Embassy of Japan in Accra between 1991 and 1995.

From there he moved to the anti-poverty non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plan International ‘s Ghana Country Office, where he worked as International Relations, Sponsorship Communications and Grants Manager between 1995 and 1996.

Political career
John Mahama was first elected to the Parliament of Ghana in the 1996 elections to represent the Bole /Bamboi Constituency for a four-year term.

In April 1997, Mahama was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications. He was promoted to the post of Minister of Communications in November 1998, serving in that post until January 2001, when the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) handed over power to the New Patriotic Party ‘s government.

In 2000, Mahama was re-elected for another four-year term as the Member of Parliament for the Bole/Bamboi Constituency. He was again re-elected in 2004 for a third term.

From 2001 to 2004, Mahama served as the Minority Parliamentary Spokesman for Communications.

In 2002, he was appointed the Director of Communications for the NDC. That same year, he served as a member of the team of International Observers selected to monitor Zimbabwe ‘s Parliamentary Elections.

As an MP , he was a member of Standing Orders Committee as well as the Transport, Industry, Energy, Communications, Science and Technology Committee of Parliament.

In 2003 Mahama became a member of the Pan-African Parliament, serving as the Chairperson of the West African Caucus until 2011. He was also a member of European and Pan African Parliaments’ Ad-hoc Committee on Cooperation.

On 7 January 2009, Mahama became the Vice-President of Ghana . In line with Ghana’s constitution , Mahama became President of Ghana on 24 July 2012 on the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills .

 
Nana Akufo-Addo (NPP)
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born on 29 March 1944. His father's residence, Betty House at Korle Wokon in Accra, was effectively the headquarters of the country's first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC),

Three of the “ Big Six ” – the founding fathers of Ghana – were his relatives: J. B. Danquah (grand uncle), William Ofori-Atta (uncle) and Edward Akufo-Addo (his father).

Akufo-Addo received his primary education first at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later at the Rowe Road School (now Kinbu), both in Accra Central. He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College , Sussex .

He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at Accra Academy Secondary School, before going to read Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a BSc (Econ) degree in 1967.

He subsequently studied law in the UK and was called to the English Bar ( Middle Temple ) in July 1971. Akufo-Addo was called to the Ghana bar in July 1975.

He co-founded the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co., which has become one of the prominent law firms in Ghana.

Akufo-Addo was the first Chairperson of DHL (GH) Ltd; and the first Chairperson of the Ghana Committee on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He was responsible, through his association with the US company, Millicom, for introducing mobile telephony into the country. Political career

In his early thirties, Akufo-Addo was the General Secretary of the broad-based People's Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), this group led the “NO” campaign in the UNIGOV referendum of 1978.

In 1991, Akufo-Addo was the chairman of the Organising Committee of the Danquah-Busia Memorial Club, a club dedicated to the preservation of the memory and ideals of the two great advocates of Ghanaian democracy, J. B. Danquah and K. A. Busia .

In 1992, he was the first national organiser of the NPP. In 1992, Akufo-Addo set up and financed The Statesman newspaper, which has become the unofficial mouthpiece of the NPP.

In 1995, he led the famous “Kume Preko” demonstrations of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a broad-based political pressure group, which mobilised millions of people onto the streets of Ghana to protest the harsh economic conditions.

Akufo-Addo was elected three times between 1996 and 2008 as Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern region of Ghana. From 2001 to 2007, as Cabinet Minister, first as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice for two years, and later as Foreign Minister for five years, Akufo-Addo served in the government of President John Kufuor with distinction.

In August 2006, Akufo-Addo chaired the meeting of the Security Council which took the decision that halted Israel's massive incursions into Lebanon.