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Presidential election results map. Green denotes provinces won by Mahama, and Blue denotes those won by Akufo-Addo. | |||||||||||||||||
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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Ghana |
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General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2016 to elect a President and Members of Parliament. [1] They had originally been scheduled for 7 November 2016, [2] but the date was later rejected by Parliament. [1] Former foreign minister Nana Akufo-Addo of the opposition New Patriotic Party was elected President on his third attempt, defeating incumbent President John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress.
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km2 (92,099 sq mi), Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east and the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean in the south. Ghana means "Warrior King" in the Soninke language.
The President of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current President of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2016 presidential election against the incumbent, John Dramani Mahama, by a margin of 9.45%. Nana Akufo-Addo was sworn into office on 7 January 2017.
The Parliament of Ghana is the legislative body of the Government of Ghana.
The election results were announced on 9 December 2016 due to a delay of voting in two areas. At 19:51 local time, Mahama called Akufo-Addo to concede defeat. At 20:45, the Electoral Commission declared that Akufo-Addo had defeated Mahama in a single round, the first time that a sitting president of Ghana had failed to win a second term.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana is the official body in Ghana responsible for all public elections. Made up of seven members, its independence is guaranteed by the 1992 Ghana constitution. The current commission was established by the Electoral Commission Act of 1993. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan was the first substantive Chairman of the Commission from 1993-2015. In December 5,2018 the Electoral commission chaired by Jean Adukwei Mensah reverted to the old logo Eagles with coat of arms after the controversy over the new logo
The president is elected using the two-round system, whilst the 275 members of Parliament are elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting.
The two-round system is a voting method used to elect a single winner, where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate receives the required number of votes, then those candidates having less than a certain proportion of the votes, or all but the two candidates receiving the most votes, are eliminated, and a second round of voting is held.
A first-past-the-post electoral system is one in which voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. This is sometimes described as winner takes all. First-past-the-post voting is a plurality voting method. FPTP is a common, but not universal, feature of electoral systems with single-member electoral divisions, and is practiced in close to one third of countries. Notable examples include Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as most of their current or former colonies and protectorates.
Eligible voters must be Ghanaian citizens who are at least 18 years old, although those declared insane are disenfranchised. Parliamentary candidates must be Ghanaian citizens at least 21 years old, and either be resident in their constituency or have lived there for at least five of the ten years prior to the election. [3]
Over 16 people filed with the election commission to run for president. However, 13 presidential candidates were disqualified due to incorrect filing procedures. The disqualified candidates included former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the president of the National Democratic Party. [4] There was some controversy due to allegations that the candidates were disqualified for political reasons. The Electoral Commission denied all accusations. After the disqualification, only four presidential candidates remained. However, the presidential candidate of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) Paa Kwesi Nduom took the EC to court over his disqualification. The court finally ruled in his favour, allowing him to join the race. [5] Two other candidates who were disqualified also followed suit, leading to there being seven candidates.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was the First Lady of Ghana from 4 June 1979 to 24 September 1979 and 31 December 1981 to 7 January 2001, both times under President Jerry John Rawlings. In 2016 she became the first woman to run for President of Ghana.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) is a Ghanaian political party, founded in October 2012 as a split from the ruling National Democratic Congress. Its first leader was former NDC politician Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, who is also the wife of former President of Ghana and NDC founder Jerry Rawlings.
Paa Kwesi Nduom or Papa Kwesi Nduom, is a business consultant and politician. He is the Progressive People's Party's aspiring candidate for president. In 2008, he was the Convention People's Party's nominee to contest the Ghanaian presidential election in December 2008. He was the member of parliament for the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem constituency and had served as minister of state in various portfolios in the Kufuor's government between 2001 and 2007. He was named after his father as Joseph Hubster Yorke Jr.
Ivor Greenstreet from the Convention People's Party was the first physically challenged candidate to contest a presidential election. [6]
Ivor Kobina Greenstreet is a politician and 2016 Ghanaian general election flagbearer for the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP). He is a lawyer by profession.
The Convention People's Party is a socialist political party in Ghana based on the ideas of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah.
A total of 1,144 candidates contested the 275 seats in Parliament. The NDC and NPP both ran full slates of 275 candidates, whilst the CPP (222 candidates) and PPP (163) were the only two other parties to run in over half the seats. The PNC nominated 64 candidates, the NDP 33, the APC 20, the GCPP 10, the UFP six and the DPP and UPP both had only one candidate. The other 74 candidates were independents. [14]
Poll source | Date | Sample size | Undecided | Mahama NDC | Akufo-Addo NPP | Nduom PPP | Greenstreet CPP | Other candidates | Notes |
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Restart International | 5 December 2016 | 2,000 | 54.7% | 43.7% | |||||
Ben Ephson | 28 November 2016 | N/A | 52.4% | 45.9% | 1.7% | 2% margin of error | |||
Ben Ephson | October 2016 | N/A | 50.8% | 47.5% | 1.7% | 2% margin of error | |||
Goodman AMC | August 2016 | 2,184 | N/A | 48% | 45% | 7% | 0% | 2.1% margin of error | |
Goodman AMC | June 2016 | 1,644 | N/A | 44% | 49% | 6% | 1% | 2.3% margin of error | |
Goodman AMC | April 2016 | 1,216 | N/A | 32% | 65% | 3% | 0% |
Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
---|---|---|---|
Nana Akufo-Addo | New Patriotic Party | 5,716,026 | 53.85 |
John Dramani Mahama | National Democratic Congress | 4,713,277 | 44.40 |
Paa Kwesi Nduom | Progressive People's Party | 105,682 | 1.00 |
Ivor Greenstreet | Convention People's Party | 25,395 | 0.24 |
Edward Mahama | People's National Convention | 22,214 | 0.21 |
Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings | National Democratic Party | 16,878 | 0.16 |
Jacob Osei Yeboah | Independent | 15,889 | 0.15 |
Invalid/blank votes | 166,248 | – | |
Total | 10,781,917 | 100 | |
Registered voters/turnout | 15,712,499 | 68.62 | |
Source: Electoral Commission Ghana |
Region | ![]() | ![]() | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Nana Akufo-Addo NPP | John Dramani Mahama NDC | |||
Votes | % | Votes | % | |
Ashanti | 1,647,220 | 76.27 | 497,242 | 23.02 |
Brong-Ahafo | 510,501 | 54.07 | 421,451 | 44.64 |
Central | 495,583 | 53.21 | 404,648 | 43.44 |
Eastern | 647,334 | 63.92 | 355,163 | 35.07 |
Greater Accra | 1,006,458 | 51.79 | 918,476 | 47.27 |
Northern | 398,384 | 42.25 | 521,850 | 55.35 |
Upper East | 157,607 | 34.17 | 273,193 | 59.22 |
Upper West | 96,762 | 36.64 | 153,338 | 58.06 |
Volta | 104,365 | 15.79 | 545,309 | 82.53 |
Western | 530,146 | 52.37 | 459,446 | 45.38 |
Source: Peace FM |
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
---|---|---|---|---|
New Patriotic Party | 5,663,786 | 52.50 | 171 | +48 |
National Democratic Congress | 4,567,429 | 42.34 | 104 | –44 |
Progressive People's Party | 187,078 | 1.73 | 0 | |
Convention People's Party | 72,677 | 0.67 | 0 | –1 |
People's National Convention | 42,405 | 0.39 | 0 | –1 |
National Democratic Party | 10,067 | 0.09 | 0 | |
All People's Congress | 2,352 | 0.02 | 0 | |
United Front Party | 896 | 0.01 | 0 | |
Democratic People's Party | 867 | 0.01 | 0 | |
Great Consolidated Popular Party | 831 | 0.01 | 0 | |
United Progressive Party | 430 | 0.00 | 0 | |
Independents | 238,790 | 2.21 | 0 | –3 |
Invalid/blank votes | – | – | – | |
Total | 10,787,608 | 100 | 275 | 0 |
Registered voters/turnout | 15,712,499 | – | – | |
Source: Peace FM |
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a centre-right and liberal conservative party in Ghana. Since the democratization of Ghana in 1992, it has been one of the two dominant parties in Ghana politics; its leading rival being the centre-left National Democratic Congress (NDC). John Kufuor of the NPP was President of Ghana from 2001 to 2009. At the elections held on 7 December 2004, the party won 129 out of 230 seats. The NPP candidate was Kufuor, who was re-elected as President with 52.75% of the vote. The New Patriotic Party symbol is the African elephant and the New Patriotic Party colors are red, white, and blue.
Edward Nasigrie Mahama is a Ghanaian medical doctor and politician.
Frederick Worsemao Armah Blay, popularly called Freddie Blay, is a Ghanaian lawyer and politician. He was a Member of Parliament in Ghana and served as the First Deputy Speaker in the Fourth Parliament of Ghana. He lost his seat in the general elections held on 7 December 2008 to Armah Kofi Buah of the NDC. He was a member of the Convention People's Party (CPP), but resigned to join the New Patriotic Party after being criticized by some CPP stalwarts for not campaigning for the CPP flagbearer Paa Kwesi Nduom, instead endorsing NPP presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is currently the President of Ghana. He has been in office since January 2017. He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the Kuffuor led administration.
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The 2010 New Patriotic Party presidential primary election was a nationwide election organized by the Electoral Commission of Ghana at the request of the New Patriotic Party of Ghana for the election of a candidate that would represent the party in the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections. It was held on 7 August 2010. The New Patriotic Party is the biggest opposition party in the Parliament of Ghana with 107 members of parliament out of 230.
General elections were held in Ghana on Friday 7 December 2012 to elect a president and members of Parliament in 275 electoral constituencies. Owing to the breakdown of some biometric verification machines, some voters could not vote, and voting was extended to Saturday 8 December 2012. A run-off was scheduled for 28 December 2012 if no presidential candidate received an absolute majority of 50% plus one vote. Competing for presidency were incumbent president John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), his main challenger Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and six other candidates.
Rebecca Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian public figure and the First Lady of Ghana.
Joe Ghartey is a Ghanaian lawyer, academic and politician. He is the current Railways and Development minister. He was appointed by President Nana Akuffo Addo on 11 January 2017. Joe Ghartey hails from Shama, in the Western Region of the Republic of Ghana.
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Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took office as Ghana's president on 7 January 2017 after winning the December 2016 presidential elections. A number of controversies have arisen under his administration.
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