As the Accran's held their referendum today I suppose I have to show you the outcome and a few infoboxes
Accra Votes for Union with Britain
VICTORIABORG - The Accran Electoral Commission has announced the results of both questions asked in today's referendum in the West African state. The first question, seen as the most controversial, asked voters whether they wanted to continue Accra's status as a sovereign state, effectively asking if they wanted to continue being an independent nation. The provisional results have shown a slight majority of nearly 10% against Accra's continued sovereignty, making Accra the second country in the 21st century to vote against continued sovereignty and independence, the other being Sierra Leone. The second question, which asked whether voters would prefer to join the United Empire or the West African Community, saw a majority of over 20% in favour of union with Britain. The result has been met with mixed responses in the country and wider region, with many street parties erupting in major Accran cities, whilst regional leaders have praised democracy and condemned the result in equal measure.
So far the embattled Lim government has refused to comment on the outcome, as the recent scandals surrounding WPA funding and the prime minister's vacation to the Aga Khan's private island have dominated the British press and political circles. Unsubstantiated rumours continue to emerge that the Liberals are considering withdrawing from the coalition. Sierra Leone First Minister Julie Maada Bio (
Socialist People's) has been the first British political figure to offer his congratulations to the country for taking "a proud step to a brighter future", and pointed to his own nation's economic and social development since accession in 2002. Accran Prime Minister Catherine Afeku (
Liberal) has confirmed that her government will act on the results and called for national unity, whilst a separate statement confirmed that talks with Britain would begin "as soon as politically convenient".
The
2018 Accran status referendum was held on 18 January 2018 and asked voters to decide on the future constitutional status of the State of Accra. Accra was a self-governing British Crown colony and has been an independent Commonwealth realm since 1957, but recent economic instability and social unrest has led to the country voting on whether to remain a sovereign state. Accran voters were asked two questions: (1) whether they agreed to continue Accra’s current status as a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations and (2) to indicate the political status they preferred from two possibilities: accession to the West African Community, or admission to the United Empire as a Home Nation.
The governing
Liberals were split between continued independence and accession to the United Empire, with the party membership and MPs being given the freedom to campaign for either side. The opposition
Labour Party strongly supported Accra joining the West African Community, as did the minority
Republic grouping. The
Party of the Centre took no official stance on the issue, although several prominent members of the party supported Accra’s accession to the WAC. The right-wing
Accran People’s Party was strongly opposed to Accra joining the WAC, and called on its members to vote for continued independence or accession to the United Empire.
The final result showed a slight majority on the first question against continued independence as a sovereign Commonwealth realm, whilst the second question saw a majority of over 20% in favour of accession to the United Empire.
The
State of Accra, historically known as the
Gold Coast, is a sovereign state located in West Africa, bordered by the Kingdom of the Ashanti to the north and west, the Kingdom of Dahomey to the east and the Gulf of Guinea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, to the south. Accra is one of only two states on the African continent with a European plurality, the other being Wehran in North Africa, and is surrounded by member states of the West African Community. A Commonwealth realm, Accra is a member of the Common Travel Area and the Common Defence Pact, and is a close regional partner of the United Empire.
Historically inhabited by the native Ga and Guan peoples, the modern territory of Accra gradually came under the control of the European colonial powers beginning in the 1650s when the Dutch and English established trading forts along the coast. By the middle of the 18th century, several other European nations had established forts, including the French, Portuguese, Swedes and Danish. Over the course of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Britain gradually took control of the other colonial holdings until by 1821 they controlled the entire Gold Coast, which included modern Accra and parts of coastal Ashantiland. In 1872, the colonial settlements were merged into a single Crown colony, known as the
British Gold Coast. Throughout the 19th century, Accra was on the front line of the Anglo-Ashanti Wars, and the aftermath of the third war (1873-1874) established the Ashanti territories as a British protectorate and brought some measure of peace to the region.
Much like colonial Sierra Leone, Accra experienced an influx of British colonial settlers and administrators during the late-19th and early 20th centuries, as well as a rise in the number of Black British resettling in the African colonies. The later group are the ancestors of the modern Americo-Accran population, descendants former enslaved Afro-Carolinians who are closely related to the Krio people of Sierra Leone. This influx in population led to rapid civilian development of the area surrounding Fort Christiansborg, a former Danish trade fort, and over time the name Victoriaborg came to be applied to growing settlement, whilst Accra came to refer to the colony as a whole. This
de facto name change only became official in 1922 when the colony was granted formal home rule. Constitutional developments in the early 20th century saw Accra emerge as a semi-dominion dependency of the British colonial empire, closely tied to Britain but not recognised as a formally sovereign dominion.
During the Second World War, Accran military units served under British command during the Second World War, primarily in the Nigerian and North African campaigns. Accran forces suffered one of the highest loss ratio of any part of the Empire. The post-war period saw a growth in Accran national identity, culminating in the adoption of a constitution in 1951 and the granting of formal independence to Accra in 1957 as an independent realm of the British Crown within the Commonwealth. A close ally of Britain, Accra has often been derisively referred to as the "31st dominion" given their frequent support for British foreign policy, and Accrans have been a regular fixture of Commonwealth peacekeeping forces in West Africa and the Middle East. Successive governments have, in recent decades, charted a more neutral international foreign policy, balancing relations with Britain and the West African Community.
The early 21st century has seen Accra affected by the instability of the West African region, with the ongoing War in West Africa affecting the country's economy and international trade. The effects have included rampant inflation of the Accran pound, and the heavy military presence within the country as a result of the ongoing Commonwealth military intervention has caused social unrest. Demographically, the country has shifted as the low birthrate amongst the European population has led to an increase in the percentage of Americo-Accrans and mixed individuals, Accra also possesses a young and fast growing population, which has been disproportionately affected by the global financial crisis. Despite pressure both at home and abroad to join the West African Community, in a non-binding referendum in January 2018, Accra narrowly voted in favour of acceding to the United Empire.
The
2015 Accran general election was held on 23 July 2015 to elect, under the mixed member majoritarian system, the 152 members of the Accran Parliament, 77 elected in single seat constituencies under the first-past-the-post system, and 75 from a nationwide proportional representation list.
The election, called less than a year after the previous one, was called by the incumbent
Labour minority government, under Prime Minister Henry Andersen, to secure a majority mandate for their economic policies. However, the instability in the global financial market, and Labour’s failure to adequately deal with the inflation of the Accran pound, as well as the ongoing Commonwealth military intervention in West Africa, allowed the opposition
Liberals to secure a majority in the House of Assembly, forming a government under leader Catherine Afeku. The right-wing populist
Accran People’s Party secured third place in the election, edging out the centrist agrarian
Party of the Centre, whilst the left-wing
Republic group lost votes and were reduced to a single seat in Parliament.
The Liberals campaigned on a platform of government spending and investment in order to boost economic growth, pledged to renegotiate Accra’s trade agreement with the West African Community, and remain within the Commonwealth Economic Community. Labour ran on a promise to reduce the debt by cutting public spending and pledged to begin the accession process with the WAC. Both of the major parties pledged to hold a referendum during the term of the next parliament on the future constitutional status of the country, as many have seen Accra's status as a nation independent from the West African Community as economically nonviable in the long term. Another major issue has proven to be same-sex marriage and LGBT rights, with all parties bar the APP supporting a move towards the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
With the Liberal victory, leader Catherine Afeku was sworn in on 1 August as the country's seventeenth, and first female, prime minister. Afeku and her government have pledged to pursue closer economic relations with the WAC, and have confirmed they will uphold their promise of a referendum on Accra's constitutional status as well as introduce legislation into Parliament to legalise same-sex marriage.
Prime Ministers of the Colony (1922–1957) and State of Accra (1957–)
11. 1922–1932 Sir James Crawford Maxwell (Responsible Government Association majority)
12. 1932–1936 Sir George Mitchell (Responsible Government Association majority)
13. 1936–1959 Sir Godfrey Huggins (Reform majority, then Liberal majority)
14. 1959–1964 Sir Edgar Whitehead (Liberal majority)
15. 1964–1966 Edward Whitaker (Labour majority)
16. 1966–1970 Simon Keating (Liberal majority)
17. 1970–1975 Sir Joseph Ankrah (Labour majority)
18. 1975–1979 Edward Akufo-Addo† (Liberal majority)
19. 1979–1982 Alexander Philipps (Liberal majority)
10. 1982–1990 Oscar Carlsson† (Labour majority)
11. 1990–1992 Jerry Rawlings (Labour majority) (1st)
12. 1992–1997 Frank Nielson (Liberal majority)
11. 1997–2000 Jerry Rawlings (Labour majority) (2nd)
13. 2000–2002 Brendan Dougherty (Accran People's minority)
14. 2002–2005 William Akufo-Addo (Liberal majority)
15. 2005–2009 Paul Boateng (Labour majority)
16. 2009–2015 Henry Andersen (Labour minority)
17. 2015–2020 Catherine Afeku (Liberal majority)
