introduction Coming on the heels of troubled elections on the African Continent, particularly Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe in recent years, Ghana's 2008 General Elections was of high interest to international as well as local observers. Mistrust and suspicion had filled the atmosphere as regards preparations for transparent General Elections. The National Democratic Congress(NDC), among other political parties in the opposition, had complained of a purported bloating of the voters roll. It was incumbent on the Electoral Commission(EC) to put in place measures to build confidence in the electoral process and assuage the fears of all stakeholders. Elections Observation and Assessment Missions The Chairman of the EC extended invitation to various international organizations to come and observe the elections. In collaboration with KAB Governance Consult and Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung Foundation(FES) a program dubbed“Safeguarding the integrity of the ballot” was organized. Publications on election observation for local election observers, roles of party agents and polling officials were published to make the rules of engagement transparent. The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan wrote to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Mr. Kamalesh Sharma, on 29 th July 2008, inviting him to send observers for the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary elections in line with Commonwealth practice. The Secretary­General sent an assessment mission to Ghana from 14 th to 18 th October, 2008. The team's mandate was to establish whether there was a broad support for the presence of Commonwealth observers during the election period and whether the observers would have full access to all aspects of the electoral process as required by the guidelines adopted by Commonwealth Heads of Government(COG) in 1991. The team also assessed the preparedness of the Electoral Commission for the elections. The team met with the EC, representative of the main Political Parties, Civil Society Organizations and others. The assessment mission subsequently concluded that there was a broad support for the presence of a COG and that the necessary guarantees had been obtained. Following the assessment mission's report, the Secretary-General decided to constitute an observer group and on 26 th November, 2008 wrote to the Chairman of the Electoral Commission informing him of his decision. The observer group consisted of 10