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Hilla Limann, 64, who was ousted as president of Ghana in a 1981 coup after a brief rule also tried to reclaim the post in elections 11 years later, died on Jan. 23 at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. He died as a result of a heart ailment complications

He was elected president in September 1979 and held that office through 1981, when he was toppled by a young Air Force fighter pilot, Lt. Jerry Rawlings, currently president of the West African nation. Rawlings first came to power by ousting the military government of Gen. Frederick Akuffo in 1979. Akuffo and two other former military rulers were executed, but elections went ahead as scheduled, and Rawlings handed over power to the winner, Dr. Limann.

Dr. Limann, who studied at the London School of Economics, ran for office as a candidate of the center-left People's National Party.

The 1979 constitution was modeled on those of Western democracies. It provided for the separation of powers between an elected president and a unicameral Parliament, an independent judiciary headed by a Supreme Court, which protected individual rights, and other autonomous institutions, such as the Electoral Commissioner and the Ombudsman.

The new President, Dr. Hilla Limann, was a career diplomat from the northern part of Ghana and the candidate of the People’s National Party (PNP), the political heir of Nkrumah’s CPP. Of the 140 members of Parliament, 71 were PNP. The PNP government established constitutional institutions and generally respected democracy and individual human rights.

Despite its best efforts, the PNP was plagued with internal party squabbles and haunted by rumors of coup attempts. Nevertheless, to halt the continuing decline in the economy and to bridge the gap between rich and poor, Limann and his government put together economic measures and built firm policies to pull the country out of the economic mess it found itself in.

On December 31, 1981, Flight Lt. Rawlings and a small group of enlisted and former soldiers launched a coup that succeeded against little opposition in toppling President Limann

After the ban on political parties was lifted in 1992, Dr. Limann formed the People's National Convention Party. He ran for president that year, finishing a distant third in elections won by Rawlings. Dr. Limann got only 6.7 percent of the vote, compared with 58.3 percent by Rawlings.

A few months before the 1996 presidential elections, Dr. Limann decided not to run. That election was also won by Rawlings. Dr. Limann remained chairman of the People's National Convention Party, which obtained three percent of the vote.

The late President Limann was survived by a wife and 7 children