General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2020. Incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was re-elected in the first round after securing a majority of the votes. Former President John Dramani Mahama announced that he would contest the results. At the Supreme Court, a petition challenging the result was filed on 30 December, and unanimously dismissed on 4 March 2021 for lack of merit.
The NPP lost its majority in the parliament, winning the same number of seats as the opposition NDC, resulting in a hung parliament with a single independent (Andrew Asiamah Amoako) in the position of kingmaker.
Electoral system
The President of Ghana is elected using the two-round system, whilst the 275 members of Parliament are elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting.
Eligible voters must be Ghanaian citizens who are at least 18 years old, although those declared insane are disenfranchised. Parliamentary candidates must be Ghanaian citizens at least 18 years old, and either be resident in their constituency or have lived there for at least five of the ten years prior to the election.
Campaign
In February 2019, former president John Mahama was confirmed as the candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress. In December, incumbent president Nana Akufo-Addo announced that he intended to run for re-election as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate. In June 2020, the NPP chose Akufo-Addo as its presidential candidate and Mahamudu Bawumia as its vice-presidential candidate. Mahama and Akufo-Addo previously ran against each other in both 2012 (with Mahama winning) and 2016 (with Akufo-Addo winning).
All contesting political parties especially the NPP and NDC campaigned vigorously across the country despite fears that political activities such as rallies could increase the rate of spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic in Ghana. Following the death of Jerry Rawlings, first president of the Fourth Republic on 12 November 2020, most candidates decided to suspend their campaigns for a week out of respect to his memory.
Filing of nomination papers for presidential candidates
At the close of the filing of nomination papers for the presidential election on 9 October 2020, seventeen persons had filed papers to stand for the elections. One of those who filed their papers on 5 October 2020 was the incumbent president, Nana Akufo-Addo. Each candidate was expected to pay a fee of GH¢100,000 to the Electoral Commission. Akwasi Addai Odike of the United Progressive Party claimed that there was a conspiracy by the NPP and the Electoral Commission to prevent him from filing his nomination papers. This was promptly denied by the chairman of the NPP, Peter Mac Manu. However, the NDC questioned why presidential candidates were filing nomination papers when the Electoral Commission has not finalised the new voter's register to be used for this election. To the surprise of many, Jacob Osei Yeboah disclosed on 6 October, when he was expected to file his nomination papers, that he would instead be the running mate of Asiedu Walker.
– Disqualified by the Electoral Commission of Ghana
Final list of presidential candidates
Following the vetting of their papers, the Electoral Commission announced the final list of presidential candidates on 19 October 2020. Five people had been disqualified from standing for the election as there were various problems with their nomination documents. These include IT issues with their forms and some had been forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service. Those disqualified include Kofi Koranteng and Marricke Kofi Gane who are both Independent. Akwasi Addae Odike of the United Progressive Party, Nana Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party and Kwasi Busumbru of the People's Action Party were also not eligible. On 20 October 2020, the candidates balloted for the order in which they will appear on the ballot paper. The incumbent president, Nana Akufo-Addo will be the first on the list followed by John Mahama, a former president. The full list as on the ballot paper is below. Following this, one of the disqualified candidates, Nana Agyenim Boateng, leader of the UFP, took to court to seek redress and prevent the elections from going ahead but the Accra High Court found no grounds to grant this relief.
Violence
On 8 December, a day after the elections there were reports of gunshots leading to the arrest of Nii Lante Vanderpuye the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the Odododiodio constituency. The Ghana Police reported 5 deaths and 19 injuries during and after the election.