The Election Between Dr. Kwame Nkrumah And Dr. J.B. Danquah (Part 1)

Personally, I think Mr. Otchere Darko has clouded the fact that there was a plebiscite to overshadow what the election between Dr. Nkrumah and Dr. J.B. Dankwah was meant to be.

Dr. Nkrumah even stated in the book that Mr. Otchere read to his followers that there was a plebiscite, but I am confident the book that he read to his followers went into detail what the election between the two candidates was implying.

It was not just a mere plebiscite in the case of the election between Dr. Nkrumah and Dr. J.B. Dankwah, the government at that time pointed out that the election of the candidates "would correspond very nearly to a general election." So some people should not assume that it was just a mere plebiscite in the case of Dr. Krumah and Dr. J.B. Dankwah rather the contest was considered nearly a general election by the then government.

Reading from the Constitutional Law of Ghana by Francis Bennion Part I- The Republican Constitution page 90, "There were four ballot boxes in each polling station, and the voter was given two papers. One was to be put either in the box bearing the word " yes " in white on a red ground or the box bearing the word " no " in black on a white ground, indicating approval or disapproval of the draft Constitution. The other was to be put either in the box bearing the photograph of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the red cockerel symbol of the C.P.P. or in the box bearing the photograph of Dr. J. B. Danquah and the cocoa tree symbol of the United Party.

"Apart from answering the two questions posed, the votes were to serve an additional purpose. The Government had pointed out that the plebiscite would correspond very nearly to a general election. The Presidential candidates were the respective leaders of the only two political parties in the country, and voting was on a constituency basis. It would thus be possible to tell in which constituencies the Government and the Opposition had a majority."