Revisiting Ghana’s 2008 Presidential Run-Off Election
Election is the major means through which representatives are chosen by the electorate. It is, therefore, the medium by which there can be a peaceful transfer of power from one government to another. Several elections have been held in Ghana since 1946. The thrust of this paper however, is to critically review the 2008 Presidential run-off between Nana Akuffo-Addo of the then ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) and Prof John Evans Atta mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its implications for democratic consolidation in Ghana. Relying solely on secondary sources for data the paper reveals that the discovery of oil and the denial of the NDC of power for nearly a decade heightened the tension between the two parties especially in the two run-offs.