page_title: New Patriotic Party
section_title: 2000 elections
hierarchical_section_title: New Patriotic Party / Electoral history / 2000 elections
caption_attribution_description: English: President Bush greets President en:John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana in the Oval Office June 28, 2001. White House photo by Eric Draper.
context_page_description: The New Patriotic Party is a centre-right and liberal conservative party in Ghana. Since the democratization of Ghana in 1992, it has been one of the two dominant parties in Ghana politics; its leading rival being the centre-left National Democratic Congress. John Kufuor of the NPP was President of Ghana from 2001 to 2009. At the elections held on 7 December 2004, the party won 129 out of 230 seats. The NPP candidate was Kufuor, who was re-elected as President with 52.75% of the vote. The New Patriotic Party symbol is the African elephant and the New Patriotic Party colors are red, white, and blue.
  In the 2008 general election, the NPP candidate Nana Akufo-Addo conceded to losing in the closely contested presidential election runoff amidst accusations of vote rigging, with Akufo-Addo receiving 49.77% of the votes, versus 50.23% for John Atta Mills, the NDC candidate. In the 2012 general election, the NPP faced a similar situation from vote results provided by the Electoral Commission of Ghana. Nana Akufo-Addo received 47.74% of the vote, while NDC candidate John Mahama received 50.7% amidst accusations of electoral fraud.
context_section_description: On 23 October 1998, Kufuor was re-nominated by the New Patriotic Party to run again for the presidency. President Rawlings, facing term limits, was due to retire after the 2000 elections. Pianim, however, resigned from the NPP and Peter Ala Adjetey, the party chairman, handed over the chairmanship to Samuel Odoi-Sykes. Aliu Mahama stood as the running mate of John Kufuor. The NDC in turn nominated Vice President John Atta Mills as its presidential candidate.
  Kufuor won the first round of the presidential election, held on 7 December 2000, with 48.4% of the popular votes. His closest challenger was Atta Mills with 44.8% of the votes. The electoral rules in Ghana mandate that the winner of elections must cross a 50% threshold. A run off election was hence organised. All the parties came together to support the NPP including the Convention People's Party, Reform Party and the United Ghana Movement against the NDC.
  In the second round, held on 28 December 2000, Kufour was victorious, taking 56.9% of the vote. When Kufuor was sworn in on 7 January 2001, it marked the first time in history that an incumbent government had peacefully surrendered power to the opposition.
caption: John Kufuor (right) with the President of the United States, George W. Bush (left), in June 2001
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