Annual report on the Gold Coast / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Gold Coast / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/198 (page 7)
    The Information Services Department mounted a campaign to educate the general public in the onew voting procedure and the broad requirements of the law regarding election offences. This campaign did not need to be either so extensive or so intensive as in the 1951 campaign, since political parties and their organisations were now well-established amd were able to take over much of the task of informing the electorate of its rights and duties. All political parties helped with the election arrangements, and were of consider¬ able assistance to Returning Officers. Both polling days passed off without major incident of any kind, and observers everywhere noted the patience and good humour of the electorate. It is becoming traditional for the people of the Gold Coast, while taking elections with the seriousness the occasion de¬ mands, to regard them as a family affair in which fierce argument may be permitted but never to the point of breach of decorum. It was noteworthy that in all electoral districts, municipal and rural, voting began very early in the day, and the largest crowds gathered in the morning. In the rural areas voting had dwindled to a trickle by mid-day. Arrangements both for the counting of votes and for the publication of results were more elaborate than in 1951. All results were transmitted as they became available, by the quickest possible means, to the Information Services Department’s conference room at its Headquarters in Accra. Here there were special facili¬ ties for journalists, including a large wall-chart showing all 104 con¬ stituencies and the names and party affiliation (if any) of all candi¬ dates, and a battery of telephones. Floodlit “ score boards ” erected on the old Polo Ground in Accra and on the Prince of Wales Park in Kumasi, attracted large crowds (that in Accra not dispersing until 3.0 a.m. when the news of Dr. Nkrumah’s success became known). The first result was declared shortly after 10.0 p.m. on Polling Day (June 15th) and the last result at mid-day on June 18th. The follow¬ ing were the results of the Election: Party Seats Votes Percentage of total votes 1. Convention People’s Party . 71 391,817 55 2. Northern People’s Party 12 53,705 7 3. Togoland Congress 2 21,026 3 4. Ghana Congress Party . 1 32,168 5 5. Moslem Association Party . 1 21,172 3 6. Ghana Nationalist Party — 3,579 1 7. Ghana Action Party — 285 0 8. Anlo Youth Organisation . 1 7,375 1 9. Independents 16 175,593 25 104 706,720 100 (a) Total number of voters on Register .... 1,225,603 (b) Total number of votes cast ...... 706,720 (b) as percentage of (a) .. 58 %