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1956 Gold Coast general election

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Field	Value
election_date
election_name	1956 Gold Coast general election
country	Gold Coast
flag_year	1877
type	parliamentary
previous_year	1954
previous_election	1954 Gold Coast general election
next_election	1965 Ghanaian parliamentary election
next_year	1965
seats_for_election	All 104 seats in the legislative assembly
majority_seats	53
party1	Convention People's Party
image1	File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-50-1.jpg
leader1	Kwame Nkrumah
seats1	71
last_election1	71
party2	Northern People's Party
leader2	Simon Diedong Dombo
seats2	15
last_election2	15
image2
popular_vote1	391,817
popular_vote2	68,709
leader3	J. B. Danquah
party3	National Liberation Movement (Ghana)
seats3	12
seat_change3	12
popular_vote3	145,657
percentage3	20.89%
image3
seat_change1	1
seat_change2
percentage1	57.10%
percentage2	10.39%
last_election3	N/A
turnout	697,257 (50.1% of registered voters)
elected_members	List of MLAs elected in the 1956 Gold Coast general election
outgoing_members	List of MLAs elected in the 1954 Gold Coast general election

General elections were held in the Gold Coast (soon to become Ghana) on 17 July 1956. The result was a victory for Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party, which won 71 of the 104 seats.

A new constitution, approved on 29 April 1954, established a cabinet composed of African ministers drawn from an all-African legislature chosen by direct election. In the following general election, the Convention People's Party won the majority of seats in the new Legislative Assembly.

Background

A new constitution, approved on 29 April 1954, established a cabinet composed of African ministers drawn from an all-African legislature chosen by direct election. In the elections that followed, the Convention People's Party won the majority of seats in the new Legislative Assembly. In May 1956, Prime Minister Nkrumah's government issued a white paper containing proposals for Gold Coast independence. The British Government stated it would agree to a firm date for independence if a reasonable majority for such a step were obtained in the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly after a general election.

Results

Aftermath

After pro-independence parties won a convincing majority, the British government agreed to grant the colony independence. This happened on 6 March 1957, with the country renamed Ghana. Initially a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II as head of State, the country's democratic credentials were hampered by the Preventive Detention Act (1958). In 1960 a referendum resulted in the country becoming a republic with a presidential form of government, and in 1964 it became a one-party state. Nkrumah was eventually overthrown in 1966.

References

[[Dieter Nohlen]], Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut (1999) ''Elections in Africa: A data handbook'', p435 {{ISBN. 0-19-829645-2

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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