Formed 1993 Headquarters Accra | Jurisdiction Government of Ghana Child agencies (etc.) | |
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Superseding agency Interim National Electoral Commission Agency executives Chairman, Charlotte Osei
Deputy Chairman, Sulley Amadu
Deputy Chairman, Georgina Opoku Amankwa | ||
The Electoral Commission of Ghana 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.
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Members
The Commission is made up of seven members. The Chairman is Charlotte Osei, the first lady to occupy this position in Ghana. She was appointed by John Mahama, President of Ghana in consultation with the Council of State of Ghana in June 2015. There are two Deputy Chairmen. Sulley Amadu was appointed by John Atta Mills, then Ghanaian President following the retirement of David Kangah who had served in that capacity for 19 years. Georgina Opoku Amankwa was appointed by President John Mahama to replace Sarfo-Kantanka who had served for about 20 years. She is the first female Deputy Chairman of the Commission. There are four other members. Mrs. Paulina Adobea Dadzawa, an administrator and Ebenezer Aggrey Fynn, a Management Consultant were appointed by President Kufuor in consultation with the Council of State of Ghana in February 2004.
International support
The acclaim that the commission received for successfully supporting the close elections of 2008, has made it a focus of African and international election reform organizations. In November 2009, a conference was held to analyze this election, and try to establish new standards and practices for African election commissions. Held in Accra, the conference was titled Colloquium on African Elections:Best Practices and Cross-Sectoral Collaboration. The conference was organized by a number of international election reform organizations including the National Democratic Institute, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa and UNDP.
Former members
In February 2004, three members of the commission retired. They were Elizabeth Solomon, Mrs. Theresa Cole and Professor Ernest Dumor. Another member, Dr. M . K .Puni, died in June 2005. Dixon Afreh is a former member of the Commission who left when he was appointed as a Justice of the Appeal Court in October 1994. Three of the members were appointed by President Kufuor in consultation with the Council of State of Ghana in February 2004 and sworn in on 5 March 2004. They are Mrs. Paulina Adobea Dadzawa, an administrator, Nana Amba Eyiiba I, Efutuhemaa and Krontihemaa of the Oguaa Traditional Area and Eunice Akweley Roberts, an Educationist and Human Resource Practitioner. They were all women. Ebenezer Aggrey Fynn, a Management Consultant was also appointed to the Commission by the President to bring it to its full complement of seven members.
Elections
The Electoral Commission of Ghana established a biometric system of registration for the electoral register prior to the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections to prevent double registration and to eliminate ghost names in the old register.
Preceding Institutions
The lives of Electoral Commissions prior to the Fourth Republic of Ghana were interrupted due to military coups. At the time of the UNIGOV referendum in 1976, Justice Isaac K. Abban was appointed by the Supreme Military Council under Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. In 1979, Justice Joe Kingsley Nyinah was the Electoral Commissioner during the general election. For the Ghanaian presidential election and parliamentary election in 1992, the Electoral Commissioner was Justice Josiah Ofori Boateng.