Ghanaian Presidential Election, 2008

A presidential election was held in Ghana on 7 December 2008, at the same time as a parliamentary election. Since no candidate received more than 50% of the votes, a run-off election was held on 28 December, 2008 between the two candidates who received the most votes, Nana Akufo-Addo and John Atta Mills.Mills was certified as the victor in the run-off election on January 3, 2009, by a margin of less than one percent.
On 21 December 2006, former Vice-President John Atta Mills, who unsuccessfully ran as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate in 2000 and 2004, was overwhelmingly elected by NDC as its candidate for the 2008 presidential election.
Former Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo was elected as the 2008 presidential candidate of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) at a party congress on 23 December 2007. Although he fell short of the required 50%, the second-place candidate, John Alan Kyeremanten, conceded defeat and backed Akufo-Addo.
The stakes of the election were raised by the discovery of oil in Ghana and an expectation for incoming oil revenues to begin in 2010. Additionally, allegations of electoral fraud that resulted in violence following elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe and military coups d'état in Mauritania and Guinea caused international election monitors to hope the Ghanaian elections would refurbish the image of constitutional democracy in Africa.
Turnout on election day was very high. Since few votes were expected for other candidates than those of the two largest parties, a first-round victory for Akufo-Addo or Mills was seen as possible, but Nduom stated he wished to "surprise" the other parties by gaining enough votes to force a run-off between the two others. With 40% of the vote counted, Akufo-Addo was leading with 49.5% to Mills's 47.6%.While Mills pulled ahead afterwards, Akufo-Addo again led by a slim margin with over 70% of the votes counted.
The second round was rerun on 28 December 2008 but due to logistics problems, the Tain District alone had its run-off election on 2 January 2009 due to problems with distributing ballots. Following the voting on 28 December, Mills led by a slim margin, causing the Election Commission to state it would not announce Mills as the winner until after the election rerun in Tain. Prior to the announcement hundreds of NDC supporters converged on the election headquarters demanding that Mills be declared the victor, but were kept at bay by riot police and armed soldiers.
Fear of election day violence caused the NPP to file a lawsuit seeking to delay voting in Tain as it claimed that "the atmosphere in the rural district was not conducive to a free and fair election". The court denied the NPP's injunction request and said it would only hear the case on 5 January 2009. In response, the NPP called its supporters to boycott the vote, for which it was criticised by civil groups.

The Peoples’ National Convention Feels Betrayed

The Peoples’ National Convention feels betrayed by what it describes as a breach of faith by the ruling National Democratic Congress.
The People's National Convention is a political party in Ghana.
At the elections, 7 December 2004, the party was part of the Grand Coalition, that won 4 out of 230 seats. Edward Mahama, candidate of the Grand Coalition won 1.9% of the vote at the presidential elections.
At the December 2008 elections, the party won 2 seats in Parliament. For the fourth time in a row, Edward Mahama was the presidential candidate. He received 0.8% of the vote.
The PNC has contested all national elections since the inception of the fourth republic apart from the 1992 Ghanaian parliamentary election, which was boycotted along with other opposition parties.
Politics of Ghana takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Ghana is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The seat of government is at Golden Jubilee House. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and Parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Constitution that established the Fourth Republic provided a basic charter for republican democratic government. It declares Ghana to be a unitary republic with sovereignty residing in the Ghanaian people. Intended to prevent future coups, dictatorial government, and one-party states, it is designed to establish the concept of powersharing. The document reflects lessons learned from the abrogated constitutions of 1957, 1960, 1969, and 1979, and incorporates provisions and institutions drawn from British and American constitutional models. One controversial provision of the Constitution indemnifies members and appointees of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) from liability for any official act or omission during the years of PNDC rule. The Constitution calls for a system of checks and balances, with power shared between a president, a unicameral parliament, a council of state, and an independent judiciary.

High Cost Of TertiaryEducation

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has expressed grave concern about the high cost of tertiary education, especially among the private universities in the country.

He said even though private universities are helping to bring quality tertiary education to the doorstep of many Ghanaians, the high fees being charged are making it impossible for many people to afford.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu, therefore, appealed to the government to support private tertiary institutions with infrastructure, equipment and funding to help reduce operational and overhead costs in order to
make their programmes easily affordable and accessible to many Ghanaians.

This was contained in an address read for him at the Second graduation of the Spiritan University College (SUC) at Ejisu, near Kumasi at the weekend.

Fourteen (14) students were awarded with first degrees, diplomas and certificates in philosophy, religious studies, sociology and economics.

The Asantehene pointed out that private tertiary educational institutions are playing a vital role in increasing access to higher education and there was the need for support to enable them to expand
and increase intake.

He charged managers of tertiary institutions to introduce innovative programmes that would meet the current development challenges of the nation.

Mr Joseph Kwabena Onyinah, Ashanti Regional Director of Education, praised the Catholic Church for its contribution to education in the country. He appealed to authorities of tertiary institutions not to concentrate only on the provision of knowledge and skills to students but their moral and spiritual development as well.

Reverend Father Ato Jackson-Donkor, Rector of the College, said the country would be heading for doom if tertiary institutions concentrated on introducing new programmes to the neglect of moral training of their students.

He said recent media reports of gang rape, homosexuality, sexual harassment of women and other negative practices by some university students in the country should be a wake-up call for authorities to
institute stringent measures to instils discipline in students.