Ghana election maps tell the story

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2012 General Election Results
2016 General Election Results
(as of Dec. 10)















The two maps above for 2012 and 2016 tell much of the story about Ghana's election results and the regional bases of support for the two main parties.

The NPP regional stronghold is in the Ashanti region (the left blue region in the left map), which is the most populous region in the country with nearly 5 million people. (Apart from Greater Accra, which holds the national capital, other regions have populations under 3 million.) Ashanti region's capital, Kumasi, is the capital of the Ashanti kingdom.

The NDC regional stronghold is the Volta region (the long region to the east), where the Ewes are the dominant ethnic group. Jerry Rawlings, who led Ghana from December 1971 (when he launched his second coup) to January 2001 (when he stepped down after serving two elected terms as president) is from the Volta region.

The other eight regions are relatively competitive between the two parties (and in the northern three regions, third parties sometimes do well).

In 2012, Mahama (NDC) won 8 of 10 regions in the country; in 2016, Akufo-Addo (NPP) won 6 of 10 regions. Similarly, in 2012 the NDC won 148 of 275 seats in the legislature, and in 2016 the NPP is expected to win over 150 seats.

UPDATE: Here is a more detailed map, at the district rather than region level. It shows that Akufo-Addo won in several northern districts. A vote count by region demonstrates that the Ashanti region continues to be the NPP stronghold (76% for Akufo-Addo) and the Volta region continues to be the NDC stronghold (82% for Mahama); in all other regions, each party won at least one third of the vote.

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