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All 38 elected seats in the 84 member assembly 43 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) Africa portal Politics portal |
General elections were held inGold Coast on 8 February 1951. Although elections had been held for the Legislative Council since 1925,[1] the Council did not have complete control over the legislation, and the voting franchise was limited to residents of urban areas meeting property requirements and the councils of chiefs.[2]
Amongst growing calls for self-governance, such as the1948 Accra Riots and unrest (which led to the arrest of theBig Six), theCoussey Committee was commissioned by theUnited Kingdom government. Its report led to the 1951 constitution, which gave the Executive Council an African majority, and created an 84-member Legislative Assembly, 38 of whom were to be elected by the people, 37 representing territorial councils, six appointed to represent commercial interests and threeex officio members appointed by the Governor. Those representing commercial interests and appointed by the Governor were all white.[3]
A total of 117 candidates contested the 38 elected seats. TheConvention People's Party (CPP) contested every seat, while theUnited Gold Coast Convention andNational Democratic Party provided its main opposition. There were also several independent candidates, as well as the Asante Kotoko party. General Secretary of the CPP,Kojo Botsio, won the Winneba seat unopposed, the only candidate to do so.[4]
Nkrumah's aide and later Finance MinisterKomla Agbeli Gbedemah is credited with organising the entire campaign while Nkrumah was still in Fort James prison, detained by the colonial government. Nkrumah duly won the Accra Central Municipal seat.
Kwame Nkrumah'sConvention People's Party won 34 of the 38 elected seats in the assembly,[5] claiming all five seats and nearly 95% of the vote in urban areas;[6] Nkrumah himself winning the Accra Central seat with 22,780 of the 23,122 votes cast. In rural areas the CPP won 29 of the 33 seats, taking around 72% of the vote.[7] The main opposition, theUnited Gold Coast Convention, fared badly, winning only three seats, and was disbanded following the elections.[8] Former members of the UGCC went on to form theGhana Congress Party (which later became theUnited Party).[9] The other parties were unsuccessful.[10][11][12]
The CPP was also supported in the Assembly by 22 of the indirectly elected members, and thus held 56 of the 84 seats.[7]
| Party | Urban areas (direct election) | Rural areas (electoral colleges) | Total seats | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | |||
| Convention People's Party | 58,585 | 91.31 | 5 | 1,950 | 71.88 | 29 | 34 | |
| United Gold Coast Convention | 5,574 | 8.69 | 0 | 763 | 28.12 | 3 | 3 | |
| National Democratic Party | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Independents | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Total | 64,159 | 100.00 | 5 | 2,713 | 100.00 | 33 | 38 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 90,725 | – | ||||||
| Source: Sternbergeret al.,[13]Bob-Milliar | ||||||||
After winning the Accra Central seat, Nkrumah was released from prison, and was appointed "Leader of Government Business",[14] before becoming the country's firstPrime Minister the following year after a constitutional amendment.
Another new constitution was promulgated in 1954, followed byelections the same year, also won by the CPP. Following another convincingelection victory by Nkrumah's party in 1956, Gold Coast became the firstsub-Saharan African state to gain independence (aside fromapartheidSouth Africa) on 6 March 1957, changing its name toGhana.
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