Ghana - 2012 Election
John Evans Atta Mills became president in early 2009 for a four-year term. When President Mills died on 24 July 2012, Vice President John Dramani Mahama immediately assumed the presidency. Ghana conducted presidential and parliamentary elections on 07 December 2012. The elections were the first Ghanaian elections where voters presented biometric identification cards in order to vote. The use of biometric verification was intended to eliminate multiple voting. Due to biometric voter verification machine failures and late openings of polling stations, particularly in Accra, voting was extended to December 8.
The independent Electoral Commission (EC) declared President Mahama the winner of the December presidential election. New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Akufo-Addo and the party’s leadership alleged massive voting irregularities and subsequently filed a legal suit before the Supreme Court on December 28 contesting the presidential election results. Domestic and international election observers deemed the elections generally free and fair despite logistical and other problems. There were a few reports of isolated violence during the elections.
Ghana has a solid democratic tradition, completing its sixth consecutive peaceful democratic election in December 2012. The losing New Patriotic Party (NPP) disputed the Presidential election results via a petition to the Supreme Court and the resulting electoral uncertainty was not resolved until the Court dismissed the petition in August 2013, upholding the victory of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate John Dramani Mahama. While many investors were a bit reserved about Ghana during the period of uncertainty, it is worth noting that there was no unrest or violence associated with the elections or the disputed result.
There are no laws preventing women from voting or participating in political life on the same basis as men, but women traditionally and culturally had less access to leadership positions than men. There were 19 women in the 230-seat parliament (expanded to 275 for 2013), four women in the cabinet, and five women on the Supreme Court. In the December elections, women won 30 of 275 seats in parliament. Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of former president Jerry John Rawlings, sought to become the National Democratic Party presidential candidate for the 2012 general election, but the EC rejected her application for candidacy, citing incomplete paperwork. In 2012 the speaker of the parliament was a woman, as was the chief justice; however, following the December election a man took over the speaker position.
There are no laws or practices that keep members of minorities from equal participation in political life. According to the 2010 census, the country had eight major ethnic groups, none of which constituted a majority. The Akan, the largest ethnic group, made up 47.5 percent of the population.
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