Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings Dies, Aged 73

A former President of Ghana Jerry Rawlings is dead. He was aged 73.

Rawlings is said to have died Thursday morning at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra.

The former president had been on admission at Korle Bu for about a week. Rawlings died of coronavirus-related complications, according to multiple reports from Ghanaian media.

As a former Ghanaian military leader and subsequent politician, Rawlings led a military junta from 1981 until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana from January 7, 1993, to January 6, 2001.

Mr. Rawlings initially came to power as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état in 1979.

Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on May 15, 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.

After initially handing power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on December 31, 1981, as the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first President of the 4th Republic.

He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.

After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian Constitution, Rawlings endorsed his vice-president John Atta Mills as a presidential candidate in 2000.