Ghana gained independence from the British on 6 March 1957. [1] It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. [2] The country became a republic on July 1, 1960. [3]
Ghana gained independence from the British on 6 March 1957. [1] It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. [2] The country became a republic on July 1, 1960. [3]
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Prior to Independence, Ghana was known as the Gold Coast. [4] The currency used before Independence was the British West African pound and in 1958 it was changed to Ghanaian pound. The Ghanaian pound was used between 1958 and 1965 and afterwards changed to Ghanaian Cedi.
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.
The Government of Ghana was created as a parliamentary democracy, followed by alternating military and civilian governments in Ghana. In January 1993, military government gave way to the Fourth Republic after presidential and parliamentary elections in late 1992. The 1992 constitution divides powers among a president, parliament, cabinet, council of state, and an independent judiciary. The government is elected by universal suffrage.
The New Patriotic Party is a centre-right and liberal-conservative political party in Ghana. Since the democratisation of Ghana in 1992, it has been one of the two dominant parties in Ghanaian politics, with 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 colours are red, white, and blue.
Jerry John Rawlings was a Ghanaian military officer, 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 1993, and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana. He was the longest-serving leader in Ghana's history, presiding over the country for 19 years.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is a social democratic political party in Ghana, founded by Jerry Rawlings, who was Head of State in Ghana from 1981 to 1993. He became the President of Ghana from 1993 to 2001. Following the formation of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), which ruled Ghana following the military coup d'état on 31 December 1981, there was pressure from the international community to restore democracy. The NDC was formed as the ruling party ahead of elections in 1992, in which Rawlings was elected president, and in 1996 Rawlings was re-elected as the NDC candidate. Rawlings' second term ended in 2001.
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.
Sophia Abena Boafoa Akuffo was the chief justice of Ghana from 19 June 2017 until 20 December 2019. She had been a judge in the Supreme Court of Ghana since 1995.
William Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 2017 to 2025. He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the administration of then-president John Kufuor.
The mass media in Ghana, includes television, radio, internet publishing and newspapers.
Jubilee House is the presidential palace in Accra that serves as a residence and office to the President of Ghana. Jubilee House is built on the site of a building that was constructed and used for administrative purposes by the British Gold Coast Government. The previous seat of government of Ghana was Osu Castle. It was named Golden Jubilee House by President John Agyekum Kuffour in November 2008 to coincide with the 50th year of Ghana's independence. It has since reverted to Jubilee House. It has previously been known as The Flagstaff House.
Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu is a Ghanaian politician and lawyer who served as Attorney General and Minister for Justice in Ghana from 2011 to 2012 and then as the First Special Prosecutor of the country from 2018 until his resignation in 2020, citing political interference by the President, Nana Akufo-Addo. He is also known for introducing the word ‘gargantuan‘, into the body politics of Ghana, when he opened investigations in the Woyome scandal which was one of the highest profiled corruption cases at the time. On 11 January 2018, Martin A.B.K Amidu was named by the President of Ghana as the Special Prosecutor for the newly created Office of the Special Prosecutor. Nana Akufo-Addo touted his anti-corruption fights as Attorney General and a private citizen as reasons for choosing Mr. Amidu, his one-time political adversary.
Paul Victor ObengKSG also known as P. V. Obeng was a Ghanaian mechanical engineer and politician. He was the chairman of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology council. In 2010, he was appointed by the President John Atta Mills administration as Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). Until his death, he was the Senior Presidential Adviser at Presidency to President John Dramani Mahama. He served under President's Jerry John Rawlings, John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama in different capacities. He was a member and coordinating secretary and chairman of the Committee of Secretaries of the Provisional National Defence Council. He died on 17 May 2014.
Job 600 is a Government building in Accra, Ghana. The post-independence structure, which is just behind the Parliament House, was commissioned by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, in 1965. The building underwent massive renovation to serve as an office complex for Members of Ghana's Parliament and was completed in 2016.
Adeline Sylvia Eugenia Ama Yeboakua Akufo-Addo was a First Lady of the second republic of Ghana as the wife of president Edward Akufo-Addo. She was the mother of president Nana Akufo-Addo.
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.
Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Afrika südlich der Sahara
