Waging Peace:  Ghana

Monitoring Elections

1992 Elections
In 1992, The Carter Center sent an election-monitoring team to Ghana's first democratic presidential election in more than 30 years.  Jerry Rawlings, in power since 1981, won with 58 percent of the vote. Carter Center election monitors observed ballot counting, the installation of voting booths and ballot boxes, the numbering of ballot packs, and postelection activities to assess the quality and transparency of the electoral process. Four hundred Ghanaians were recruited and trained as local monitors. Although opposition parties protested the results, The Carter Center concluded that the election was generally well-conducted and properly expressed the will of the Ghanaian people.

Following this return to democracy, Ghana underwent three more elections, in 1996, 2000, and 2004, in which power alternated between the two largest political parties.  In 2008, President John Agyekum Kufuor was constitutionally barred from running for a third term.  With no presidential incumbent and no clear front-runner, the political environment intensified quickly in the months preceding the election.  Public confidence in elected officials was on the decline, and sporadic violence had been reported in parts of the country.  The elections represented a watershed moment for democracy in Ghana and the African continent as a whole, given Ghana's status in the region as a democratic success story.  Members of the domestic and international community feared that if the elections were not executed properly, Ghana's electoral institutions and practices could be undermined, and other countries undergoing democratic transitions could backslide.

2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections
The Carter Center launched an international election observation mission in Ghana in May 2008 to encourage fairness in the electoral process and acceptance of the election results by all political stakeholders.  Four long-term observer teams were present for voter registration, and five teams observed the campaign period and pre-election preparations.  For the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 7, 2008, and the presidential runoff on Dec. 28, 2008, The Carter Center deployed 58 short-term observers to all 10 regions of Ghana.  On Jan. 2, 2009, the Center also deployed five observer teams to the Brong-Ahafo region to observe a re-vote in Tain constituency that held the mathematic potential to reverse the order of the two presidential candidates.  In the end, former Vice President John Atta Mills defeated Nana Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the incumbent party.

The Carter Center concluded that although there were several important areas needing improvement – voter education, political party behavior, and election dispute resolution – the largely peaceful and transparent conduct of these elections was an important step forward in Ghana's continued democratic consolidation and role as a regional leader.

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Election Reports

View Carter Center election reports for Ghana >