The puzzle of how Acheampong ousted an EC executive and won a vote the next day
How General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, the leader at the time, managed to do something that flipped the votes in his favor overnight during a referendum called by the Supreme Military Council (SMC) for a Union Government (UNIGOV) in 1978 is a mystery or some sort of unstated incredulity.
Acheampong felt that Justice I. K. Abban, the electoral commissioner at the time, would try to thwart his plans for a UNIGOV, especially after he challenged his order on election day that all polling boxes be taken to regional centers for counting rather than being counted at individual polling stations.
Abban was aware that Acheampong’s instruction would permit interfering with the voting process, but this upset the SMC leader, who fired Abban.
The SMC was also expected to lose the vote, according to numerous estimates.
Ultimately, Abban retreated, but just after that sack, something extraordinarily amazing occurred.
Details on eaumf.org indicate that during the tenure of the ousted EC boss, early results began to confirm the predictions made prior to the elections: UNIGOV was losing.
However, the new Electoral Commissioner who took over the following day declared UNIGOV the winner of the referendum with 55.6 percent of the vote.
After achieving his goals, Acheampong anticipated criticism from his rivals, so on April 3, 1978, he swiftly banned the National Union of Ghana Students, the Ghana Association of University Professors, and the Association of Recognized Professional Bodies (ARPB) (NUGS).
The aforementioned organizations were among those who fiercely opposed the Union Government.
History
Because the SMC came under pressure due to popular unhappiness with the way the economy was being managed, a decision was made to organize a national referendum in July 1977.
A piece of writing on jstor.com titled “Politics in a ‘non-political’ system: The March 30, 1978 Referendum in Ghana” claims that this was also accompanied by signals that the military intended to hold onto power for a “indeterminate period” of time.
These worries prompted students to go on strike, which culminated in the Association of Recognized Professional Bodies (ARPB) calling for the government to resign immediately on June 23, 1977.