Ghana

Ghana became independent from Britain on 6 March 1957, having been formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory.

The government of first President Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by the military while he was abroad in 1966. Ghana experienced a series of coups culminating in Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings coming to power in 1981.

After approving a new constitution and restoring multiparty politics in 1992, Rawlings won presidential elections in 1992 and 1996, and was constitutionally prevented from running for a third term in 2000. John Kufuor succeeded him and was reelected in 2004. John Atta Mills, formerly Rawling's Vice President, took over as head of state in early 2009. Nana Akufo-Addo won the 2016 presidential election against the incumbent, John Dramani Mahama, who was sworn in January 2017.

Ghana has a mixed legal system of English common law and customary law. Ghana has a constitution dating from 1992.