Managing Election- Relation Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana survived 19 years as Head of State of Ghana, the last eight years as the elected President after two democratic elections in 1992 and 1996. This was in spite of the highly unpopular Economic Recovery Programme(ERP) and the Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP) instigated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF). The government succeeded in laying the blame at the door of the Bretton Woods institutions, and even though the middle class and civil servants were against such policies, Rawlings continued to receive significant support. Having won the elections of 1992 and 1996 under a new party, the National Democratic Congress(NDC), and having served two four-year terms, Rawlings was ineligible to stand again in the 2000 election and openly anointed his Vice-President at the time, John Evans Atta Mills as his successor in the famous Swedru Declaration of 1998. The Swedru declaration split the NDC, as there were other people who had been interested in the flagbearer position. Thus the Declaration was perceived as an imposition on the party by Rawlings, and had dire consequences for the party as it lost the 2000 elections to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the largest opposition party in Ghana. That election was won by the NPP presidential candidate, John Agyekum Kufuor, against John Evans Atta-Mills of the NDC. Using the populist slogan of'Positive Change'(in the 2000 election) and Positive Change No. 2(in the 2004 election), the NPP stayed in power for eight years. After a second term in office, Kufuor's party lost the 2008 election to John Evans Atta-Mills, who became President in January 2009. The NDC in this election won with the populist campaign slogan of'yere sesamu' (change), against the incumbent government's'We are moving 88