Legally an election when a President is in office must take place not earlier than four months nor later than one month before his term of office expires, and if the office is vacant within three months after the office becomes vacant.
The Public Elections Regulations specify that a notice must be published in the Gazette after a writ of election has been issued to a returning officer, “stating that the writ has been issued and specifying the constituency to which it relates, the day and place for the nomination of candidates and the day on which the poll is to be taken”.
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The Parliament of Ghana has 275 members, elected for a four-year term in single-seat constituencies.
The presidential election is won by having more than 50% of valid votes cast, whilst the parliamentary elections is won by simple majority, and, as is predicted by Duverger’s law, the voting system has encouraged Ghanaian politics into a two-party system, creating extreme difficulty for anybody attempting to achieve electoral success under any banner other than those of the two dominant parties.
Parliamentary candidates must be Ghanaian citizens at least 21 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.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
Source: Opera News Ghana
