Jean Adukwei Mensa

Jean Adukwei Mensa is a Ghanaian lawyer and the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC). She has led the Commission since 2018 and oversaw the 2020 and 2024 general elections. Before that she spent 18 years at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), rising to executive director.

Early life and education

She was born Jean Adukwei Blukoo-Allotey on 12 November 1971 in Accra to Ga parents. Her father, Dr Jacob Amekor Blukoo-Allotey, was a physician who received the Order of the Volta in 2008. She attended Ridge Church School and St. Mary's Senior High School in Accra, graduated in law from the University of Ghana in 1993 and was called to the Ghana Bar in 1995.

Law and the IEA

She practised at Amarkai Amarteifio Chambers from 1995 to 1997 before joining the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Accra think tank, where she became executive director. At the IEA she worked on governance reforms including the Presidential Transition Act of 2012, the Political Parties Funding Bill and proposals for a revised 1992 Constitution. In 2010 President John Evans Atta Mills named her to a nine-member constitutional review committee.

Electoral Commission

President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed her EC Chairperson in July 2018, after the removal of Charlotte Osei, and she was sworn in on 1 August 2018 with her deputies Samuel Tettey and Dr Eric Bossman Asare. Her decision to compile a new voters' register before the 2020 election was strongly opposed by the NDC and led to demonstrations in Tamale, Kumasi and Accra. She declared Akufo-Addo the winner of the 7 December 2020 presidential election, a result the Supreme Court upheld. She then ran the December 2024 election, which John Mahama won.

After the change of government, President Mahama referred seven petitions seeking her removal, and that of her two deputies, to the Chief Justice in late 2025. In February 2026 Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie dismissed them, finding no prima facie case under Article 146 of the Constitution, and she stayed in office. The government has said the President has no intention of removing her without compelling evidence of wrongdoing.

In 2026 both her deputies left: Tettey retired and Asare resigned to return to the University of Ghana. On 12 October 2026 President Mahama swore in Emelia Afi Agbenyo and Dr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah as the new Deputy Chairpersons.

Family

She is married to Dr Charles Mensa, a former resident director of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO).