" For the PNDC, therefore, the district elections constituted an obvious first step in a political process that was to culminate at the national level.

The PNDC and its supporters formed a new party, the National Democratic Congress ( NDC ), to contest the elections.

If, as Rawlings said, the PNDC revolution was a " holy war ," then the proposed assemblies were part of a PNDC policy intended to annihilate enemy forces or, at least, to reduce them to impotence.

" In other words, a degree of autonomy may have been granted to the assemblies in the determination of programs most suited to the districts, but the PNDC left itself with the ultimate responsibility of making sure that such programs were in line with the national economic recovery program.

District assemblies as outlined in PNDC documents were widely discussed by friends and foes of the government.

To such critics, the district assemblies were nothing but a move by the PNDC to consolidate its position.

The economic recovery programs implemented by the PNDC in 1983 and the proposal for district assemblies in 1987 were major elements in the government's strategy to address these fundamental and persistent problems.

One controversial provision of the Constitution indemnifies members and appointees of the Provisional National Defence Council ( PNDC ) from liability for any official act or omission during the years of PNDC rule.

In 1984, the PNDC created a National Appeals Tribunal to hear appeals from the public tribunals, changed the Citizens ' Vetting Committee into the Office of Revenue Collection and replaced the system of defense committees with Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

Members of the Trade Union Congress were also angered when the PNDC ordered them to withdraw demands for increased wages.

For example, John Ndebugre, secretary for agriculture in the PNDC government, who was later appointed northern regional secretary ( governor ), belonged to the radical Kwame Nkrumah Revolutionary Guard, an extreme left-wing organization that advocated a Marxist-Leninist course for the PNDC.

In response to such criticisms, the PNDC announced on December 1, 1984, the dissolution of all PDCs, WDCs, and NDCs, and their replacement with Committees for the Defence of the Revolution ( CDRs ).

By December 1981, when the PNDC came to power, the inflation rate topped 200 percent, while real GDP had declined by 3 percent per annum for seven years.

Precisely because some members of the government also held such views, the PNDC secretary for finance and economic planning, Kwesi Botchwey, felt the need to justify World Bank ( see Glossary ) assistance to Ghana in 1983:

Even so, the PNDC was the object of significant criticism from various groups that in one way or another called for a return to constitutional government.

Although the National Commission for Democracy ( NCD ) had existed as an agency of the PNDC since 1982, it was not until September 1984 that Justice Daniel F. Annan, himself a member of the ruling council, was appointed chairman.

By barring candidates associated with corruption and mismanagement of national resources from running for district assembly positions, the PNDC hoped to establish new values to govern political behavior in Ghana.

As for the categorization of certain PNDC policies as " leftist " and " rightist ," Rawlings dismissed such allegations as " remarkably simplistic ... What is certain is that we are moving forward!

Under international and domestic pressure for a return to democracy, the PNDC allowed the establishment of a 258-member Consultative Assembly made up of members representing geographic districts as well as established civic or business organizations.

In the last years of the PNDC, Jerry Rawlings assumed civilian status ; he was elected as a civilian President in 1993 and continued in power until 2001.

In April 1983, in coordination with the IMF, the PNDC launched an economic recovery program, perhaps the most stringent and consistent of its day in Africa, aimed at reopening infrastructural bottlenecks and reviving moribund productive sectors — agriculture, mining, and timber.

The PNDC remained in power until January 7, 1993.

The PNDC, like most of its predecessors, made serious and consistent attempts at the practical application of these ideals and principles, and its successor, the NDC government, promises to follow in the PNDC's footsteps.

The NDC government, like the PNDC before it, believes in the principle of selfdetermination, including the right to political independence and the right of people to pursue their economic and social development free from external interference.

Another feature of NDC rule carried over from the PNDC era is faithfulness to what a leading scholar of Africa has called " one of the most successful neoclassical economic reform efforts supported by the IMF and the World Bank.

In August 1994, Rawlings became ECOWAS chairman, a post that had eluded him since the PNDC came to power.

In early 1984, the PNDC government complained that Côte d ' Ivoire was allowing Ghanaian dissidents to use its territory as a base from which to carry out acts of sabotage against Ghana.

The PNDC thereafter worked to improve the transportation and communication links with both Côte d ' Ivoire and Togo, despite problems with both countries.

Ghana-Nigeria relations began on a sour note in the early period of PNDC rule.

Tension rose immediately after the PNDC deposed Limann in 1981.

In early January 1989, Babangida reciprocated with an official visit to Ghana, which the PNDC hailed as a watershed in Ghana-Nigeria relations.

* December 31 – A coup d ' état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the PNDC led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.

The PNDC proclaimed its intent to allow the people to exercise political power through defense committees to be established in communities, workplaces, and in units of the armed forces and police.

Under the PNDC, Ghana remained a unitary government.

In December 1982, the PNDC announced a plan to decentralize government from Accra to the regions, the districts, and local communities, but it maintained overall control by appointing regional and district secretaries who exercised executive powers and also chaired regional and district councils.

In 1984, the PNDC also created a National Commission on Democracy to study ways to establish participatory democracy in Ghana.

Calling itself the Provisional National Defense Council ( PNDC ), its membership included Rawlings as chairman, Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah ( whom Limann had dismissed as army commander ), two other officers, and three civilians.

Despite its military connections, the PNDC made it clear that it was unlike other soldier-led governments.

The PNDC chairman assured the people that he had no intention of imposing himself on Ghanaians.

" In the chairman's words, the dedication of the PNDC to achieving its goals was different from any the country had ever known.

The PNDC also served notice to friends and foes alike that any interference in the PNDC agenda would be " fiercely resisted.