1979 Ghanaian general election

1979 Ghanaian general election

Presidential election
18 June 1979 (first round)
9 July 1979 (second round)
 
Nominee Hilla Limann Victor Owusu
Party PNP PFP
Popular vote 1,118,305 686,097
Percentage 61.98% 38.02%

Results by region

President before election

Jerry John Rawlings
Military

President-elect

Hilla Limann
PNP

Parliamentary election
18 June 1979

All 140 seats in Parliament
71 seats needed for a majority
Party Vote % Seats
People's National Party 36.44 71
Popular Front Party 30.60 42
United National Convention 17.51 13
Action Congress Party 8.84 10
Social Democratic Front 3.90 3
Independents 0.91 1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

General elections were held in Ghana on 18 June 1979, with a second round of the presidential election on 9 July 1979. The presidential election resulted in victory for Hilla Limann of the People's National Party, who received 62% of the vote in the run-off, whilst his PNP won 71 of the 140 seats in Parliament. According to one scholar, the elections were conducted "in as free and fair a manner as might be considered humanly possible under local conditions" and the losing candidates publicly accepted defeat. Around 5,070,000 people were registered to vote.

The Electoral Commissioner during the elections was Joseph Kingsley-Nyinah, an Appeal Court Judge who was appointed by the Supreme Military Council (SMC). Although the SMC was overthrown on 4 June 1979, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council military government which replaced it allowed the elections to proceed just two weeks later.