Explanation of the Inconclusiveness of the 1979 Elections in Ghana

The 1925 election made way for subsequent elections to take place in the Gold Coast now known as Ghana. Before, voting was restricted to just a few people mostly chiefs, property owners and others. The beginning of the first proper elections in the then Gold Coast was in 1951 which led to the victory of Convention People’s Party (CPP). The CPP in their rule established the introduction of the one party-rule in the Gold Coast, abolishing multiparty election. It led to 15 years of CPP’s rule which ended abruptly with the 1966 coup. This led to the introduction of military rule in the Gold Coast (Ghana).

Elections on the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1979 ended seven years of military rule and General Acheampong was removed from office. The 1979 election made the Gold Coast return to civilian rule and also gave way for rebirth of multiparty elections in the state. the adoption of the American presidential way during the 1979 elections made it possible for the presidential and parliamentary elections to occur differently and also made it clear that for a person to be declared the president in a presidential election, he or she just doesn’t have to win majority of the votes but also more than 50% of the votes if not, there is a need to have a runoff between the two leading party opponents, so as to get a clearer picture of who would been declared president. As a result of the introduction of multiparty elections in 1979, which happened to be the Ghana’s third republic, a total of six political parties emerged to participate in the presidential and parliamentary elections. The six political parties that came to life were to participate in the 1979 elections were, the United National Convention (UNC), Third Force Party (TFP), Popular Front Party (PFP), People’s National Party (PNP), Social Democratic Front (SDF) and the Action Congress Party (ACP). The presidential election was the first election to happen before the parliamentary elections. During the presidential elections, 10 eligible presidential candidates were proposed. One from each party, a total of 6, and 4 independent candidates. However, at the end of the 1979 presidential elections, the result of the first round of the election was rendered inconclusive as the presidential candidates failed to get more than 50% of the number of votes obtained after the election. The explanation of the inconclusiveness of the first round of the 1979 presidential elections will be written in the following paragraphs.

The first reason has to do with the power hungry and greedy leaders and people of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) who were now called the People’s National Party (PNP). As stated in the previous paragraph, the CPP dominated the Gold Coast for 15 years as a result of their one-part regime which paved the way for them to be the only ruling party to operate in the country during that era. They were later removed from office by a coup d’état and since then, they have not been able to get into power for about 13years. This made them hungry and greedy for power. The consequences for not being in power for a long time led to the division of the CPP and its supporters. We can therefore conclude that, they became weak as a party. In an effort to gain back their popularity and party strength, the People’s National Party (PNP) tried to reunite their supporters and their people and also tried to use the achievements during the Nkrumah reign as a means to win people over. This helped them get a considerable amount of backing causing a rift in the presidential elections.

The second reason is related to the number of followers of each party. Even though there were 10 people contesting in the 1979 presidential elections, all of them each had a good amount of people backing and supporting them. This posed a major problem and led to the inconclusiveness of the first round of the 1979 presidential elections. As I stated in the introduction, for a person to be declared president according the new American constitution adopted by the Gold Coast, a person needs to get more than 50% of the qualified votes, but no presidential candidate was able to get more than 50% of the qualified votes in the first election. The highest percentage recorded was about 35% eligible votes which was obtained by Hilla Limann of the People’s National Party (PNP). Even the independent candidates were able to obtain at least 3% of the number of votes after the elections.

The third reason has to do with the unpopularity of the PNP’s presidential candidate Hilla Limann and popularity of the Popular Front Party’s (PFP) presidential candidate Victor Owusu and his character. These two candidates were the leading candidates after the first round of the 1979 presidential elections. Hilla Limann was the most promising candidate of the 1979 presidential elections who was known to be of good character but his unpopularity is caused his demise. On the other hand, his opponent Victor Owusu was very popular in the Gold Coast and was known to be very experienced when it comes to politics but a behavior, he exhibited in parliament through a statement he made gave him the label of “a man with bad character.” This is what also caused his demise causing him to lose votes despite him being well-versed in politics. As a result of these opposing issues, the people were left in the middle, because they did not know who to vote for. One is unpopular and of good character whilst, one is popular but of bad character. This is what also led to the inconclusiveness of the 1979 presidential elections.

The fourth explanation for the inconclusiveness of the 1979 presidential elections is the division of the former Progress Party (PP) into The Popular Front Party (PFP) and the United National convention (UNC). The division of the PP into PFP and UNC caused them to lose votes in the presidential elections. Since the PP was no longer a united party, its supporters found other political parties which they liked and supported. Those who also remained had to choose who to support in the presidential elections between the two that is, UNC and PFP. As a result, the collective number of eligible votes that the Progress Party would have obtained if it had remained united had to split into two and also had to also bear the loss of some of their supporters.

The fifth one has to deal with the laxity of the Popular Front Party (PFP) headed by Victor Owusu. The Party was lax in their dealings. They did not put any effort into their campaigns. They had self-approved themselves as winners of the elections just because they were subdivision of the Progress Party (PP). This lax behavior they adopted cause them to lose in the elections because the people of the Gold Coast did not feel their presence and were not entirely convinced to put their trust in them as a party.

To conclude, it can be deduced that a major cause of the inconclusiveness of the first round of the 1979 presidential elections can be attributed to the fact that it was sudden. In the sense that, there were a very long ban on multi-part elections in the country at the time. Therefore, the implementation of the multi-party elections in 1979 can be said to be something new to the people, even though it had been in existence before. A lot of the political parties had lost their roots and some of them especially the new ones were not well prepared to for the elections. With respects to the people, I believe some were still shaken after the military took control again delaying the first round of the 1979 presidential elections.