Ghana's December 7 elections. A look at the Candidates.

Ghana

Ghana's December 7 elections. A look at the Candidates

By Polls Africa

Graphics by Marcus Ezra | Cover image by Nengi Nelson

Published November 2020

Ghanaians go to the ballot on 7 December for general elections to elect a president and the 275-member National Assembly, on the exact date elections were held 4 years ago in 2016. The incumbent president Nana Akufo-Addo who is completing his first term in office, will be seeking for reelection on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate.

In Summary

Some have described the political situation between New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) as some sort of clientelism with either party succeeding each other since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1993.

According to the constitution, Ghana has a two round system with a single presidential term lasting four years. Presidents have a two-term limit. The vice-president is chosen by the presidential candidate as a running mate. Since the return of the country to full democracy in 1996, Ghana has held six general elections with peaceful transitions whenever either NDC or NPP have won elections.

The contest

Among the candidates will be former president John Mahama, who is the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate. Mahama became president on 24 July 2012 following the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills, but was defeated by Akufo-Addo in the 2016 elections. In 2012 Akufo-Addo was defeated by Mahama.

The reelection of Akufo-Addo is not guaranteed and if the history of these two parties is to be considered, the 2020 election will be fiercely contested as has been the case in previous elections. The major issues at play are education, economic management, unemployment and infrastructure development.

Out of the 17 persons who filed and presented their nomination papers to the Electoral Commission of Ghana, five were disqualified, leaving 12 candidates on the ballot papers come December 7.

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Presidential Candidate, 2020

Running mate

Political Party

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Mahamudu Bawumia

New Patriotic Party (NPP)

John Dramani Mahama

Jane N. Opoku-Agyemang

National Democratic Congress (NDC)

Christian Kwabena Andrews

Abu Grant Lukeman

Ghana Union Movement (GUM)

Ivor Kobina Greenstreet

Emmanuel Yaovi Bobobee

Convention People's Party (CPP)

Akua Donkor

Ernest Adakabre Frimpong Manso

Ghana Freedom Party (GFP)

Henry Herbert Lartey

Andy Bampoe-Sekyi

Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP)

Hassan Ayariga

Frank Yaw Kuadey

All People's Congress (APC)

Percival Kofi Akpaloo

Margaret Obrine Sarfo

Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG)

David Asibi Ayindenaba Akpasera

Divine Ayivor

People's National Convention (PNC)

Brigitte Akosua Dzogbenuku

Kofi Asamoah-Siaw

Progressive People's Party (PPP)

Source; Electoral Commission Ghana

2016 elections

The 2016 elections saw voter turnout of 62.25%, lower than the 2012 elections turnout of 79.43%. In 2016 Akufo-Addo won 53.72% of the vote to become president after the first round of voting. Mahama came second with 44.53%. The two main parties, NPP and NDC, also got most seats in parliament with NPP winning 52.5% to the NDC’s 42.34%. Regional voting is a feature of Ghanaian elections with the north and the east voting for NDC while the south and the west backing NPP.

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Presidential Candidate, 2016

Political Party

Votes and Percentage

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

New Patriotic Party (NPP)

5,755,758

(53.72%)

John Dramani Mahama

National Democratic Congress (NDC)

4,771,188

(44.53%)

Paa Kwesi Nduom

Progressive People’s Party (PPP)

106,092

(0.90%)

Ivor Kobina Greenstreet

Convention People’s Party (CPP)

25,552

(0.24%)

Edward Mahama

People’s National Convention (PNC)

22,214

(0.21%)

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

National Democratic Party (NDP)

16,935

(0.16%)

Jacob Osei Yeboah

Independent

15,911

(0.15%)

Voter turnout

69.25%

Source; Electoral Commission Ghana

Chronology of Heads of State (HoS)

*	President	Bio
	13th HoS Nana Akufo-Addo	Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, born in 1944, is the current President of Ghana. He came to office since 7 January 2017 and is serving his first term. In the 2016 general elections, as the candidate of New Patriotic Party (NPP), Akufo-Addo defeated the then president John Mahama in the first round to become the president. He won the election with 53.83% of the votes against Mahama's 44.4%.
	12th HoS John Mahama	John Dramani Mahama, born in 1958, was the President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017 for 4 years. Mahama, a member of National Democratic Congress (NDC), took office as president on 24 July 2012 following the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills. Mahama was Ghana’s Vice President from January 2009 to July 2012.
	11th HoS John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills	John Atta Mills, born in 1944, was President of Ghana for 3 years from January 2009 until his death in July 2012. Atta Mills defeated Nana Akufo-Addo with 50.2% of the vote to Akufo-Addo's 49.7% in the 2008 election to become president. He previously served as Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 and contested unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate. He is the first and, to date, the only Ghanaian head of state to die in office.
	10th HoS John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor	John Kufuor, born in 1938, was President of Ghana from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009 for a period of 8 years. A member of New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kufuor defeated John Evans Atta Mills in the December 2000 taking 56.9% of the vote in a run-off vote. His win was first peaceful democratic transition of power in Ghana since independence in 1957.
	9th HoS Jerry Rawlings	Jerry John Rawlings, born in 1947, was President of Ghana for 8 years from 1993 to 2001. He has previously rule Ghana as a military leader. Rawlings first came to power following a coup d'état in 1979. He handed over power over to a civilian government, but took back control in 1981 and ruled as military head for 11 years. In 1992, Rawlings founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and contested for presidency as a civilian. He won the elections with 60% of the votes, and took office as the first President of the Fourth Republic in January 1993. Rawlings died on 12 November 2020 aged 73.
	8th HoS Hilla Limann	Hilla Limann, born in 1934 was the President of Ghana from 1979 to 1981 for a short period of 2 years. . Limann took office 24 September 1979 after the Supreme Military Council led by Jerry Rawlings organized elections. Limann was elected President as the People's National Party (PNP) candidate. Two years later in 1981, Limann was deposed by Rawlings who took power back to the military. Dr. Limann died on 23 January 1998 in Accra, Ghana of natural causes.
	7th HoS Jerry Rawlings	Jerry Rawlings first took power in 1979 in a coup that deposed the then military leader Lieutenant General Frederick Akuffo. After the coup, Flight Lieutenant Rawlings established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), which ruled for 112 days and organized elections that took power back to civilians.
	6th HoS Fred Akuffo	Frederick William "Fred" Kwasi Akuffo, born in 1937, was Ghana’s military Head of State from 1978 to 1979. Akuffo came to power in a military coup after deposing the then military leader General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. After slightly less than one year, Lieutenant General Akuffo was overthrown and executed three weeks later, on 26 June 1979, by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council headed by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings.
	5th HoS Ignatius Acheampong	Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, born in 1931, was a military head of state of Ghana from 13 January 1972 to 5 July 1978. General Acheampong, became head of state after leading a coup d'état on 13 January 1972 that overthrew the democratically elected government of Dr. Kofi Busia of the Progress Party (PP). He went on to rule for 6 years until he was deposed in another coup by Lieutenant General Akuffo. General Acheampong was later executed by firing squad on 16 June 1979.
	4th HoS Edward Akufo-Addo	Edward Akufo-Addo, born in 1906, was President of Ghana for 1 year from 1970 to 1972. Akufo-Addo led Ghana for one year until his overthrow deposition by the military on 13 January 1972. As per the then constitution the prime minister, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, was the head of government. Akufo-Addo died of natural causes on 17 July 1979.
	3rd HoS Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa	Lieutenant General Akwasi Afrifa, born in 1936, was head of state of Ghana from April 1969 to August 1970. Afrifa came to power through the military and ruled for a brief period of slightly over one year. He was then deposed. In June 1979 Afrifa and two other former heads of state, General Kutu Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo were executed by Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).
	2nd HoS Joseph Arthur Ankrah	Joseph Arthur Ankrah Ankrah, a military general, was the second President of Ghana as Chairman of the National Liberation Council. He was appointed after coup d'état of 24 February 1966 that deposed the first president Kwame Nkrumah. By that time Ankrah had already left the army. Ankrah died on 25 November 1992.
	1st HoS Kwame Nkrumah	Kwame Nkrumah, born in 1909, was the first President of Ghana. He was in power from July 1960 to February 1966. Nkrumah having led Ghana, then known as Gold Coast, to independence from Britain in 1957, was also the country’s first Prime Minister and founder of Convention People's Party (CPP). Nkrumah is famous as a champion of Pan-Africanism and a founding member of the Organization of African Unity. He was deposed in 1966 by the military and fled to Guinea where he remained for the rest of his life.
		Independence from Britain in 1957 in 1960