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General elections were held in Gold Coast in 1935.
The Legislative Council had 30 members, of which 16 were 'official' members (civil servants) and 14 'unofficial' members. [1] [2] Of the 14 unofficial members, three were Europeans appointed by the Governor to represent banking, mercantile and shipping interests, and two were Europeans elected by the Chamber of Commerce and Chamber of Mines. The remaining nine unofficial members were Africans, six of which were elected by the Provincial Councils (three by the Eastern Province Council, two by the Central Province Council and one by the Western Province Council) and three directly-elected members representing the municipalities of Accra, Cape Coast and Sekondi. [1] The elections were held under a severely limited franchise, with only 4,058 people registered to vote in Accra from a population of around 60,000. [3]
In Accra the contest was a re-run of the 1931 elections, with incumbent MLC Frederick Nanka-Bruce again challenged by Kojo Thompson. The after-effects of the Great Depression had increased opposition to colonial rule, with Nanka-Bruce's ineffective performance in the Legislative Council benefiting Thompson. [4] The media campaign quickly descended into abuse; [5] Nanka-Bruce was supported only by the Gold Coast Independent (which he owned) and the Times of West Africa, whilst Thompson received the backing of the African Morning Post (and its editor Nnamdi Azikiwe), the Gold Coast Spectator, the Provincial Pioneer and Vox Populi. [4] The African Morning Post accused Nanka-Bruce of being a "sycophantic Uncle Tom, an ultra-moderate stooge, a self-seeker, a traitor and a mummified yes-man". [5] Nanka-Bruce used his Gold Coast Independent to label Thompson as an immoral opportunist in twelve successive issues. [5]
Nanka-Bruce was supported by the Accra Ratepayers Association, the Asere Kowulu Party and the Ga Mashi Party. Thompson was supported by the Mambii Party, the Akwapem Improvement Association, the Ashanti Kotoko Society and the West African Youth League (and its founder I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson). [5] On the day before the elections, the Gã Mantse called on his subjects to vote for Thompson. [4]
As in the 1931 elections, Kobina Arku Korsah was re-elected in Cape Coast and George James Christian in Sekondi. [6] In Accra, Thompson narrowly defeated Nanka-Bruce by 1,030 votes to 926. [4] Voter turnout was surprisingly less than 50%. [7] However, the tactics of Thompson's supporters, which included blocking access to polling stations for elderly Nanka-Bruce supporters, led to the result being overturned in court when Nanka-Bruce challenged the outcome, [4] the official ruling citing "undue influence of gong-gong beating" and 124 cases of impersonation. [3] By the time the re-run took place on 16 April 1936, the Town Clerk had reduced the voter roll to only 2,858 by removing over 1,200 deceased residents. [8] Thompson surprisingly won again with a slightly increased majority of 1,022 votes to 867. [3]
The Gold Coast was a British Crown colony on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa from 1821 until its independence in 1957 as Ghana. The term Gold Coast is also often used to describe all of the four separate jurisdictions that were under the administration of the Governor of the Gold Coast. These were the Gold Coast itself, Ashanti, the Northern Territories Protectorate and the British Togoland trust territory.
The Convention People's Party (CPP) is a socialist political party in Ghana based on the ideas of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. The CPP was formed in June 1949 after Nkrumah broke away from the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). Nkrumah was the then appointed Secretaty General of the UGCC when he was arrested by the leader of the UGCC and imprisoned for an alleged thought, plans and power against Kwame Nkrumah's leadership. Kwame Nkrumah then formed the Convention People's Party with support of some UGCC members and had a purpose for self governance. Upon Kwame Nkrumah's leadership with the CPP, he orgranized a non violent protest and strike for support of the purpose for self-governance which took him to imprisonment for a second time, but he was released after winning a massive vote by the CPP following the colonies election general election whilst he was in prison. The CPP followers supported Nkrumah's ideas and voted for him massive for power of self-governance. The articles discussed about the origins of Ghana political parties, the 1948 riot and the birth of the Convention People Party among others. Issues that led to the formation of the CPP, struggles with the colonial powers led by Kwame Nkrumah and finally the attainment of Ghana's independence were part of the key concerns for this write up.
Located directly east of the Korle Lagoon, Jamestown and Usshertown are the oldest districts of Accra, Ghana and emerged as communities around the 17th century British James Fort and Dutch Ussher Fort on the Gulf of Guinea coast. These districts were developed at the end of the 19th century, and following the rapid growth of the city during the 20th century, they became areas of a dense mixture of commercial and residential use.
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