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As part of its commitment to deepen democracy in Ghana, The IEA-GPPP held two workshops to discuss Ghana�s electoral system with a view to proposing reforms in the wake of the problems that emerged after the 2012 General Elections. The first workshop took place at Akosombo from 11th to 13th October 2013. A follow-up workshop was held in Koforidua, at the Capital View Hotel from 8th-10th November, 2013. The common theme for the workshops was: Towards Transparent and Acceptable Elections: A Review of Ghana�s Electoral System. Both workshops were attended by over forty participants comprising representatives of The IEA-GPPP, namely the National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), People�s National Convention (PNC), and the Convention Peoples� Party (CPP). The leadership of non-parliamentary political parties including the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Progressive Peoples� Party (PPP), United Front Party (UFP) and Mr. Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY), the Independent Candidate who contested the 2012 Presidential Elections. Representatives of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Civil Society Organizations and the Media also participated. To climax the workshop series, a National Stakeholder Workshop was held in Accra on the 12th of August 2014 to present another platform for other important election stakeholders including Security Agencies, National Commission for Civic Education, Electoral Commission, Media as well as other identifiable groups and CSOs to also submit proposals for electoral reform. The review and discussions about Ghana�s electoral system were focused on the areas of: �The Role and Powers of the Electoral Commission in the conduct of Elections �Biometric Voter Registration �Voting and Documents of the Polls �E-Voting �Election Security �Election Petitions As part of The IEA-GPPP Electoral Reform Project, the various proposals for electoral reform would be highlighted one after the other in a series. We intend to articulate them over, and over and over again until the nation�s electoral system is purely fine-tuned. In this first series, we will highlight and discuss Recommendation ONE (1) �CONDUCT GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER�. General Elections should be held in November so that if there is the need for a run-off or challenge, these may be disposed off before the President is sworn in. Election petitions should be disposed off expeditiously to improve public trust in the judiciary and enhance good governance. This must last not more than three weeks in a manner akin to what pertains in Kenya where an election petition received on 16th March 2013 was disposed off by 30th March of the same year. Bringing the Election Day forward to 7th November would therefore allow ample time for run-offs (which are expected to be conducted three weeks after the General Elections) and settlement of possible legal battles disputes after the election. This would in turn ensure ample time for proper handing over and transition in a manner that ensures policy continuity and good governance. The political transitions of 2001 and 2009 were severely inhibited due to the run-offs that took much of the limited time for the handing over of power. Indeed there were severe time constraints, since the transfers were forced to take place within the short period of six days, 1st January to 6th January for the 2001 transition; and an even shorter period of three days, 4th January to 6th January for the 2009 transition (as a result of the Tain run-off election). Needless to say, the short periods between the declaration of the results and the commencement of the transfer process in both cases did not allow the losing party sufficient time to properly re-orient itself for the transfer. Hence a lot of mistakes were made. There were no proper handing over notes from the out-going officials to the in-coming ones. Again, there were several seizures of vehicles by party foot soldiers and forcible ejection of people from their apartments and government bungalows. Given the fragile nature of Ghana�s democracy, we need ample time to iron out all election �related issues and ensure a proper transfer of power from an out-going leader to an in-coming one before the latter�s investiture. The ample time would allow the euphoria of victory and the disappointment of losing an election to settle for proper handing over to take place. Therefore, our recommendation one, once again calls for an amendment in Ghana�s electoral rules for elections to be conducted on 7th November rather than 7th December. Given the high stakes involved in the upcoming 2016 elections, the possibility for a run-off and or another Supreme Court Petition cannot be ruled out completely. If this is the case, then we need to prepare and act now. There is no time to waste. We need not procrastinate and later run unreasonably crushed election-related programmes at the dying minutes of an election year as we have always done. So, over to you, Mr. Chairman of Electoral Commission.