The constitution that established the Fourth Republic provided a basic charter for republican democratic government. It declares Ghana to be a unitary republic with sovereignty residing in the Ghanaian people. Intended to prevent future coups, dictatorial government, and one-party states, it is designed to establish the concept of powersharing. The document reflects lessons learned from the abrogated constitutions of 1957, 1960, 1969, and 1979, and incorporates provisions and institutions drawn from British and American constitutional models. One controversial provision of the Constitution indemnifies members and appointees of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) from liability for any official act or omission during the years of PNDC rule. The Constitution calls for a system of checks and balances, with power shared between a president, a unicameral parliament, a council of state, and an independent judiciary.
Nana Akufo-Addo is established in the Office of the Presidency, together with their Council of State. The president is head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the armed forces. They appoints (buffalo) the vice president. According to the Constitution, more than half of the presidentially appointed ministers of state must be appointed from among members of Parliament.[4]
Nana Akufo-Addo is established in the Office of the Presidency, together with his Council of State. The president is head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the armed forces. He also appoints the vice president. According to the Constitution, more than half of the presidentially appointed ministers of state must be appointed from among members of Parliament.[4]
This precedent which was set by Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP party in 2012 was followed by John Dramani Mahama the then president, and now opposition leader and the NDC party when they petition the Highest Court of the Land to overturn the election victory of Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP party on the grounds that the victory was illegal.[11][12][13]
Legislative Branch
Legislative functions are vested in Parliament, which consists of a unicameral 275-member body plus the Speaker. To become law, legislation must have the assent of the president, who has a qualified veto over all bills except those to which a vote of urgency is attached.[14]
Members are elected for a four-year term in single-seat constituencies by simple plurality vote. As it is predicted by Duverger's law, the voting system has encouraged Ghanaian politics into a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party. Elections have been held every four years since 1992. Presidential and parliamentary elections are held alongside each other, generally on 7 December.
As a result of the Ghanaian presidential election, 2016,[20]Nana Akufo-Addo became President-elect and was inaugurated as the fifth President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana and eighth President of Ghana on 7 January 2017.[21] In December 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo was re-elected after a tightly contested election.[22]
The structure and the power of the judiciary are independent of the two other branches of government. The Judiciary of Ghana is responsible for interpreting, applying and enforcing the laws of Ghana, and exists to settle legal conflicts fairly and in a more competent way.[23] The Supreme Court of Ghana has broad powers of judicial review. It is authorized by the Constitution to rule on the constitutionality of any legislation or executive action at the request of any aggrieved citizen. The hierarchy of courts derives largely from British juridical forms. The courts have jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters. They include the Superior Courts of Judicature, established under the 1992 Constitution, and the Inferior Courts, established by Parliament. The Superior Courts are, from highest to lowest, the Supreme Court of Ghana, the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice, and the ten Regional Tribunals. The Inferior Courts, since the Courts Act 2002, include the Circuit Courts, the Magistrate Courts, and special courts such as the Juvenile Courts.[24]
In 2007, Georgina Wood became the first-ever female chief justice of the Ghanaian Supreme Court.[25] On May 11, 2011, Nana Akufo-Addo nominated Sophia Abena Boafoa Akuffo the Chief Justice of Ghana to replace Georgina Wood. She was officially inaugurated into the position on June 19, 2017[26][27] and she retired on 20 December 2019.[28] On Tuesday, January 7, 2020, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, sworn into office Kwasi Anin-Yeboah as the next Chief Justice of Ghana replacing Sophia A. B. Akuffo.[29][30][31] He retired on 24 May 2023 after having served 21 years as a judge and 3 years as the head of the Judiciary of Ghana.[32][33][34] The current Chief Justice is Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, she was sworn-in into office on 12 June 2023.[35][36][37]
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 2020 presidential election against former president, John Dramani Mahama, by a margin of 4.23%. He was sworn into office for his second term on 7 January 2021.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) 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.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is a social democratic political party in Ghana, founded by Jerry Rawlings, who was Head of State of Ghana from 1981 to 1993 and 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 Dramani Mahama is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017. He previously served as Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, and took office as president on 24 July 2012 following the death of his predecessor, John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills.
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.
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.
The Supreme Court of Ghana is the highest judicial body in Ghana. Ghana's 1992 constitution guarantees the independence and separation of the Judiciary from the Legislative and the Executive arms of government.
The chief justice of Ghana is the highest-ranking judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana. The chief justice is also the head of the Judiciary of Ghana and is responsible for its administration and supervision. In order of state precedence, the chief justice is the fourth highest official in Ghana.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) 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 (Act 451) of 1993. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan was the first substantive chairman of the commission, from 1993 to 2015. He was succeeded by Charlotte Osei as the first female chairman of the commission from 2015 to June 2018. Jean Adukwei Mensah succeeded Charlotte Osei in July 2018. On December 5, 2018, the Electoral commission chaired by Jean Adukwei Mensah reverted to the old logo showing the Coat of arms of Ghana and a ballot box showing the hand casting its votes, after the controversy over the new logo.
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.
Ghana gained independence from the British on 6 March 1957. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The country became a republic on July 1, 1960.
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.
Kwasi Anin-Yeboah is a Ghanaian judge and the immediate past Chief Justice of Ghana. In December 2019, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo nominated Justice Anin-Yeboah as the Chief Justice of Ghana.
Samuel Abu Jinapor, is a Ghanaian lawyer and a politician. He is a member of the New Patriotic Party and the Member of Parliament for the Damongo Constituency. In 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo appointed him as Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations at the Office of the President, at the age of 33, the youngest in the history of Ghana to occupy such a position. He is currently the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and assumed position as caretaker Minister of Trade and Industry on 16th January, 2023.
Jean Adukwei Mensa is a Ghanaian lawyer by profession who has been serving as chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana since July 2018. She was nominated by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo to take over the Ghana Electoral Commission Job from her predecessor, Madam Charlotte Osei. Madam Jean Mensa was born on November 12, 1971. Prior to assuming the role of chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa spent an 18-year career at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), rising to the position of executive director. As the Chief Returning Officer, Madam Jean Mensa declared the then presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP as the validly president-elect of the December 7th, 2020 Presidential Election.
General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2020. Incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was re-elected in the first round after securing a majority of the votes. Former President John Dramani Mahama announced that he would contest the results. At the Supreme Court, a petition challenging the result was filed on 30 December, and unanimously dismissed on 4 March 2021 for lack of merit.
Her Ladyship JusticeGertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo is a Ghanaian judge. She was nominated to the Supreme Court in November 2019 and received parliamentary approval in December 2019. She was sworn in on 17 December 2019. She was nominated to the office of Chief Justice in April 2023 to replace Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah who retired as Chief Justice on May 24, 2023. She was sworn into office as the 15th Chief Justice of Ghana on 12 June 2023.
Julius Ansah is a Ghanaian judge who served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana from 2004 to 2020.
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.
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