1964 Ghanaian constitutional referendum

None 31 January 1964 Ghana 2,773,920 2,452 0 A constitutional referendum was held in Ghana on 31 January 1964. The proposed amendments to the constitution would turn the country into a one-party state and increase the powers of President Kwame Nkrumah and make him president for life. With results showing that an implausible 99.91% of voters supported the amendments, the referendum was accused of being "obviously rigged".Seth Anthony (1969) "The State of Ghana", African Affairs Vol. 68, No. 273, pp337–339 Voter turnout was reported to be 96.5%.Milutin Tomanović (1965) Hronika međunarodnih događaja 1964, Institute of International Politics and Economics, p240 (in Serbo-Croatian) Results ChoiceVotes%For2,773,92099.91Against2,4520.09Total2,776,372100Source: African Elections Database https://web.archive.org/web/20120530060759/http://africanelections.tripod.com/gh.html#1964_Constitutional_Referendum 2012-05-30 Aftermath Following the successful passage of the constitutional amendments, the country became a one-party state with the Convention People's Party as the sole legal party (though the country had essentially been a one-party state since independence in 1957). Nkrumah became president for life of both nation and party, with greatly expanded powers; he could now remove members of the Supreme Court at his discretion. In effect, the amendments transformed Nkrumah's regime into a legal dictatorship. Elections were scheduled to be held under this system in 1965, but were cancelled shortly beforehand, with Nkrumah appointing MPs instead. However, Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup in February 1966, the CPP was dissolved, and the constitution suspended. Multi-party politics was restored by the time of the next elections in 1969. References Category:1964 referendums Category:1964 in Ghana 1964 Category:Constitutional referendums