President Rawlings Headed For Victory | Ghana General Election | December 1996

December 1996 Footage of Ghana President Jerry John Rawlings at the time of the 1996 elections which were praised as having been "fair and free" by independent monitors. Excerpts from Reuters Text: "Rawlings, a charismatic former air force pilot, twice seized power and ruled unchallenged for a total of 15 years before first winning a popular mandate in 1992 ... Since independence from Britain, all Ghana's elected governments have been toppled before serving out their terms ... The election commission put turnout at about 80 percent in the elections praised by foreign poll observers as among the best organised in a region where logistics problems have marred voting in recent elections, often leading to violence ... Rawlings seized power as an air force flight-lieutenant in 1979, executing three former heads of state. He restored civilian rule but seized power again in 1981 ... A former socialist firebrand, he embraced Western-style free-market economics, winning plaudits from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank." Source: Reuters News Archive. Note: Rawlings defeated his closest rival, John Kufuor, in the presidential vote. His National Democratic Congress defeated Kufour's opposition Great Alliance party, winning 133 of the 200 seats in Parliament.