1979 Ghanaian general election

Last updated
1979 Ghanaian general election
Flag of Ghana.svg
Presidential election
  1960 18 June 1979 (first round)
9 July 1979 (second round)
1992  
  Hilla Limann (cropped).jpg Noimage.png
Nominee Hilla Limann Victor Owusu
Party PNP PFP
Popular vote1,118,305686,097
Percentage61.98%38.02%

1979 Ghanaian presidential election (percentage by region).svg
Results by region

President before election

Jerry John Rawlings
Military

President-elect

Hilla Limann
PNP

Parliamentary election
Flag of Ghana.svg
  1969 18 June 1979 1992  

All 140 seats in the legislative assembly
71 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
 
Party PNP PFP
Seats won7142
Popular vote645,080541,659
Percentage36.44%30.60%

 Third partyFourth party
 
Party United National Convention Action Congress Party
Seats won1310
Popular vote310,062156,484
Percentage17.51%8.84%

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% of the votes in the run-off, [1] whilst his PNP won 71 of the 140 seats in Parliament. According to one scholar, the elections were conducted "in as free and fair a manner as might be considered humanly possible under local conditions" and the losing candidates publicly accepted defeat. [2] Around 5,070,000 people were registered to vote. [1]

Contents

The Electoral Commissioner during the elections was Joseph Kingsley-Nyinah, an Appeal Court Judge who was appointed by the Supreme Military Council (SMC). [3] Although the SMC was overthrown on 4 June 1979, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council military government which replaced it allowed the elections to proceed just two weeks later.

Results

President

CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Hilla Limann People's National Party 631,55935.321,118,30561.98
Victor Owusu Popular Front Party 533,92829.86686,09738.02
William Ofori Atta United National Convention 311,26517.41
Frank Bernasko Action Congress Party 167,7759.38
Ibrahim Mahama Social Democratic Front 66,4453.72
John Bilson Third Force Party 49,1042.75
R. P. Baffour Independent8,8120.49
Kwame NyantehIndependent8,4800.47
Mark Diamond Addy Independent5,9590.33
Imoru Ayarna Independent4,8740.27
Total1,788,201100.001,804,402100.00
Registered voters/turnout5,070,000
Source: Nohlen et al.

Parliament

PartyVotes%Seats
People's National Party 645,08036.4471
Popular Front Party 541,65930.6042
United National Convention 310,06217.5113
Action Congress Party 156,4848.8410
Social Democratic Front 69,0523.903
Third Force Party 31,8871.800
Independents16,1650.911
Total1,770,389100.00140
Source: African Elections Database

Seats won by region

Party Central Accra Eastern Ashanti Brong-Ahafo Volta North Upper Western Total
People's National Party86112211715971
Popular Front Party0161910041142
United National Convention03410500013
Action Congress Party70000000310
Social Democratic Front0000003003
Independents0000100001
Total151021221316141613140
Source: Jeffries [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghana Armed Forces</span> Combined military forces of Ghana

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is the unified armed force of Ghana, consisting of the Army (GA), Navy (GN), and Ghana Air Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of Ghana</span>

Politics of Ghana takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president of Ghana is both head of state and head of government, and of a two party system. The seat of government is at Golden Jubilee House. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Ghana</span> History of the African country Ghana

The area of the Republic of Ghana became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its Emperor, the Ghana. Geographically, the ancient Ghana Empire was approximately 500 miles (800 km) north and west of the modern state of Ghana, and controlled territories in the area of the Sénégal River and east towards the Niger rivers, in modern Senegal, Mauritania and Mali. The empire appears to have broken up following the 1076 conquest by the Almoravid General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar. A reduced kingdom continued to exist after Almoravid rule ended, and the kingdom was later incorporated into subsequent Sahelian empires, such as the Mali Empire. Around the same time, south of the Mali empire in present-day northern Ghana, the Kingdom of Dagbon emerged. The decentralised states ruled by the tindaamba were unified into a kingdom. Many sub-kingdoms would later arise from Dagbon including the Mossi Kingdoms of Burkina Faso and Bouna Kingdom of Ivory Coast. Dagbon pioneered Ghana's earliest learning institutions, including a university town, and a writing system prior to European arrival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Rawlings</span> Leader of Ghana between 1979 and 2001

Jerry John Rawlings was a Ghanaian military coup leader, aviator and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana.

Lieutenant General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa was a Ghanaian soldier, farmer, traditional ruler and politician. He was the head of state of Ghana and leader of the military government in 1969 and then chairman of the Presidential Commission between 1969 and 1970. He continued as a farmer and political activist. He was elected a member of Parliament in 1979, but he was executed before he could take his seat. He was executed together with two other former heads of state, General Kutu Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo, and five other generals, in June 1979. He was also popularly referred to by his title Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa and was in addition the abakomahene of Krobo in the Asante-Mampong Traditional Area of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Atta Mills</span> President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012

John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the governing party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 Ghanaian presidential election. He was previously the Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and he contested unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was the first Ghanaian head of state to die in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nana Akufo-Addo</span> President of Ghana since 2017

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 2017. He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the Kufuor-led administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Ofori Atta</span> Ghanaian politician (1910–1988)

William Ofori Atta, popularly called "Paa Willie", was a Ghanaian founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and one of the founding fathers of Ghana as one of "The Big Six" detained by the British colonial government in the then Gold Coast. He later became a Minister for Foreign Affairs in Ghana's second republic between 1971 and 1972.

Victor Owusu was a Ghanaian politician and lawyer. He served as Attorney General and Minister for Justice on two occasions which were under the NLC and then Busia regime and also became Minister for Foreign Affairs under the Busia regime. He was the Popular Front Party's presidential candidate for the 1979 Ghanaian general election.

Albert Kwadwo Adu Boahen was a Ghanaian academic, historian, and politician. He was an academic at the University of Ghana from 1959 to 1990, from 1971 onwards as a professor. As a politician, he notably was a candidate in the 1992 Ghanaian presidential election, representing the main opposition New Patriotic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1978 Ghanaian governmental referendum</span> Ghanaian referendum

A referendum on the system of government was held in Ghana on 30 March 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Ghana (1966–1979)</span> History from 1966 to 1979

From 1966 to 1979, the nation of Ghana underwent a turbulent era as the Second Republic of Ghana. It began when the government of Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown on February 24, 1966 by a military coup.

Frank George Bernasko was a Ghanaian soldier, lawyer, and politician. He served as the Commissioner of Agriculture among others in the National Redemption Council (NRC) military government of General I.K. Acheampong. He was also the founder and leader of the erstwhile Action Congress Party and contested the presidential election in 1979.

Imoru Ayarna was a Ghanaian businessman and politician. He was the founder and leader of the erstwhile People's Action Party in Ghana.

Major General Neville Alexander Odartey-Wellington (1934–1979) was a Ghanaian army officer who was Chief of Army Staff of the Ghana Army from 1978 to 1979. He died in action leading loyal troops against revolting forces during the 4 June 1979 military uprising in Ghana which toppled the Supreme Military Council II government led by Fred Akuffo.

1970s in Ghana details events of note that happened in Ghana in the years 1970 to 1979.

Kofi Badu was a Ghanaian politician and journalist. He served as a member of parliament during Ghana's first republic and a minister of state during the Supreme Military Council (SMC) era and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) era. As a journalist, he was editor for various newspapers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political history of Ghana</span>

The Political history of Ghana recounts the history of varying political systems that existed in Ghana during pre-colonial times, the colonial era and after independence. Pre-colonial Ghana was made up of several states and ethnic groups whose political system was categorized by 3 main administrative models; Centralized, Non-centralized and Theocratic states. In the colonial era, the British Empire employed different forms of government among its four territorial possessions in the Gold Coast. Indirect rule was implemented in the late 19th century after its success in Northern Nigeria. From the 1940s, native Ghanaians yearned for more autonomy. This resulted in the several constitutional reforms as well as the creation of the office of the Prime Minister in 1952.

Joseph Kwame Kingsley-Nyinah was a Ghanaian judge who served as a justice of the Court of Appeal and also as the Electoral Commissioner for Ghana.

References

  1. 1 2 Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut (1999) Elections in Africa: A data handbook, p438 ISBN   0-19-829645-2
  2. 1 2 Jeffries, Richard (July 1980). "The Ghanaian Elections of 1979". African Affairs. 79 (3): 401. JSTOR   722047.
  3. "Profile of Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, the Next NPP Flagbearer". VibeGhana. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2022.