Kwadwo Afari-GyanCSG (born 18 June 1945) is aGhanaianacademic,political scientist and election administrator. He was Chairman of theElectoral Commission of Ghana^[1] from 1993 to 2015.

Afari-Gyan was born on 18 June 1945 atAnyimon in theBrong Ahafo Region ofGhana.^[2] He attendedAchimota School andAdisadel College for hisA Level and also graduated from theUniversity of Ghana in 1967 with aBA degree inPhilosophy. He attained aMA degree in African politics in 1969 from the same university. He also studied in theUnited States where he was awarded aPh. D. inpolitical science from theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara in 1974.^[1]

Afari-Gyan worked as a lecturer and a professor of Political Science at the University of Ghana. He has also lectured in the United States andNigeria. He was a member of the Committee of Experts that drafted the Fourth Republican Constitution for Ghana.^[3]

In 1992, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Interim National Electoral Commission by theProvisional National Defence Council, which was ruling as a militaryjunta, with the hope of returning the country to civilian rule. His job was to ensure that theNovember 1992 presidential election and theDecember 1992 parliamentary elections were free and fair.Jerry John Rawlings, the chairman of the PNDC, who was alsoHead of State, stood and won the elections.^[1]

With the coming into force of the Fourth Republican Constitution, a new Electoral Commission was set up and Afari-Gyan became its first substantive chairman. He has successfully supervised all the elections held under this constitution so far. He has successfully chaired the conduct of presidential and parliamentary elections in 1992,1996,2000,2004 and2008.^[4] In the last of these, unofficial institutions attempted to declare the results of these elections, with Afari-Gyan stating that these results could not be trusted.^[5]

The 2004 general elections were disputed in court by the opposition National Democratic Congress. But the case was lost on technicalities. Again, the 2012 presidential election between President John Dramani Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo ended up in an 8-month election petition trial at the Supreme Court. The opposition leader lost the case in a 5:4 split decision, which held that the President was validly elected. But, the trial, which was live on television, exposed some fundamental weaknesses in Ghana's electoral process, triggering calls and moves towards comprehensive electoral reforms before the 2016 general elections.^[6] The ruling has been heavily criticised by jurists.^[7][8]

This is what one of the Supreme Court Justices, JusticeJones Dotse, had to say about Dr Afari Gyan:"My observation is that, Dr. Afari Gyan appeared to have concentrated his oversight responsibility at the top notch of the election administration, thereby abdicating his supervisory role at the grassroots or bottom, where most of the activities critical to the conduct of elections are performed. In this instance, he even appeared not to be conversant with some of the basic procedural steps and rules that are performed by his so-called temporary staff. So far as I am concerned, Dr. Afari Gyan has cut a very poor figure of himself, and the much acclaimed competent election administrator both nationally and internationally has evaporated into thin air once his portfolio has come under the close scrutiny of the Courts."^[9]

In 1998, he became the Executive Secretary of theAssociation of African Election Authorities. He was also a member of a committee of experts who advised Nigeria on elections.^[10]

He retired as Chairman of the Electoral Commission in June 2015.

He was awarded theOrder of the Star of Ghana, the highest national award by PresidentJohn Mahama, on 1 July 2015.^[11]

He has also worked in other African countries and has written several books.^[1]He was the "star witness" for theElectoral Commission of Ghana in an electoral petition filed by theNew Patriotic Party after the 2012 general election.^[12]

• The Political Ideas of Kwame Nkrumah. University of California, Santa Barbara. 1974. p. 462.
• Nkrumah's Ideology. 1985.
• Public Tribunals and Justice in Ghana. Asempa Publishers. 1988. p. 14.
• Understanding Politics. Asempa Publishers. 1991. p. 109.
• The Making of the Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana.Accra: Goldtype Publishers &Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Ghana Office. 1995. p. 139.ISBN 978-9988-572-02-0.
• The Ghanaian constitution: An introduction.Friedrich Ebert Foundation. 1999. p. 108.ISBN 978-9988-572-56-3.
• Sarpong, Peter; et al. (1992). Afari-Gyan, Kwadwo; Arhin, Kwame (eds.).The City of Kumasi Handbook: Past, Present and Future-Cambridge Faxbooks.OCLC 29495434.

• Living people
• 1945 births
• University of Ghana alumni
• Academic staff of the University of Ghana
• University of California, Santa Barbara alumni
• Recipients of the Order of the Star of Ghana
• Electoral commissioners of Ghana
• Alumni of Achimota School
• Alumni of Adisadel College
• People from Bono Region
• Ghanaian academics
• 20th-century Ghanaian politicians
• 21st-century Ghanaian politicians

• CS1: unfit URL
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• Articles with dead external links from February 2020
• Articles with permanently dead external links
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• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2015