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Ghana elects on national level a head of state, the president, and a legislature. The president is elected for a four-year term by the people. Unlike the Presidency, parliamentarians are eligible to run for as many terms as possible so long as they are of sound mind.

Electoral system of Ghana

The presidential election is won by having more than 50% of valid votes cast, whilst the parliamentary elections is won by simple majority, and, as is predicted by Duverger's law, the voting system has encouraged Ghanaian politics into a two-party system, creating extreme difficulty for anybody attempting to achieve electoral success under any banner other than those of the two dominant parties. Elections have been held every four years since 1992.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are held alongside each other, generally on 7 December every four years.

To qualify as a Presidential candidate, the person is required to be Ghanaian citizens by birth, be at least 40 years old, and must be of sound mind. Again, the person must either be nominated by a political party or stand as independent candidate, provided the necessary requirements are met, including a full payment of presidential filing fees. Presidential campaigns typically span several months to years leading up to Election Day. Candidates are allowed to engage in rallies, debates, and media appearances to communicate their vision and developmental policies (manifestos) for the country and garner support from voters. Ghanaian citizens aged 18 and above are eligible to vote in presidential elections.

Ghana is divided into constituencies, each represented by a Member of Parliament (MP).  Similar to the Presidential elections, each political party presents a list of candidates for each constituency, and voters cast their ballots. Non-aligned or independent candidates are equally eligible to stand for parliamentary elections. Candidates' filing fees for parliamentary elections is always lower compared to the presidential filing fees.

The Presidential and Parliamentary elections are organized, conducted and supervised by the Electoral Commission of Ghana(EC), the official body responsible for public elections and referendums in Ghana. The Commission, headed by the Electoral Commissioner, operates independently and has the mandated by the constitution to ensure the integrity and transparency of the electoral process. The EC also superintendents over nationwide voter registration, candidate nomination, ballot printing, polling station setup, collation, tabulation and announcement of election results.

Scholars review of elections

Presidential

Parliamentary

See also

  • Electoral calendar
  • Electoral system
  • Electoral Commission of Ghana
  • List of general elections in Ghana

Ethnic voting in Ghana

Ethnic voting is the idea that people utilize candidates' ethnic identity to decide who can be best trusted to follow through with their promises for goods to their coethnic constituents as payment for their vote. This form of vote buying in which one's vote is paid for through a targeted public good is known as clientelism and is especially popular in sub-Saharan African countries. Kanchan Chandra, one of the leading academics in Ethnic Politics, claims that there are several causes for this phenomenon in Africa. First, the individual has an incentive to seek out public goods for their vote because of one's perception that their vote individually will not lead to altering the election. While not conducted in Ghana, research in sub-Saharan Africa has found that community investments are significantly more likely to occur in which there are more homogeneous communities. This displays how communities largely composed of one ethnicity may be benefiting from ethnic voting at the local level. This is supported by observing how voting among these minorities for non-coethnic candidates does not vary between locations that have public goods and those that do not. This theory, "reverse coattails", supports the idea that clientelism surrounding ethnicity at the local level incentivizes individuals to participate at the party level thus aligning them with the party of a presidential candidate that their local official supports. Because candidates have mobilized ethnic groups through clientelist practices, ethnic groups create stronger ties to their ethnicity around times of competitive elections. By examining how people define themselves (by ethnicity, language, economic status, etc.), one cross-national study found data that when elections are closer and more competitive, it is more likely that people will identify with the ethnic category associated with their ethnicity. This research emphasizes that, although there is less information available to Ghanaian people, they are still more likely to choose a candidate based on past performance and policy plans.