The Study of Ghana’s Democratic Periodic Election Under the Fourth Republic

ABSTRACT Ghana, before coming into the existence of the fourth republic in 1992, witnessed numerous forceful and military takeovers of power, from one government to the other. Eventhough, the fourth republic came with some number of features, this paper shall focus on Ghana's democratic periodic election, which came out of Ghana's multi-party Democracy system, in 1992. As a result of the democratic periodic election feature, an independent body called the EC was constituted by a constitutional instrument, to conduct a free, fair and transparent periodic election for the presidential, parliamentary and district or local level elections in the country for every four years. This paper seeks to study the periodic elections conducted by the EC under the fourth republic in Ghana, looking at the processes, composition and the functions of the EC, Challenges associated with the Ghana's enviable peaceful and transparent free and fair periodic elections for the presidential elections. Ghana as part of its 4th republic democracy give the right for all Ghanaians to form and join a political party of one's choice.