Accra — The delay in the release of official results of Sunday's presidential election in Ghana seemed to have started raising political temperature in the West African country.

Soldiers were seen deployed in various strategic positions in the capital city, Accra.

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), apparently concerned about the rising political temperature in the polity; banned the use of its ultra-modern press centre for press conferences pending the release of official results.

Since Sunday's elections, the two rival parties, National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP), have been holding series of press conferences and issuing press releases making allegations and counter allegations against each other.

For example, on Monday contentious but separate press conferences by NPP and NDC top guns were held at the GJA Press Centre in which each of them claimed to have won the presidential election.

Latest unofficial figures, however, show that the candidate of the ruling NPP, Dr. Nana Akufo-Addo, had overtaken the candidate of the opposition party, NDC, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills, based on the results from 227 out of the total 230 constituencies in the country.

Akufo-Addo had 49.41% while Atta-Mills got 47.69%. The NPP candidate's swing followed the release of the results from the party's stronghold, Ashanti, the country's largest region with 29 constituencies.

The results of the remaining two constituencies are expected to be fully collated last night or early today to pave way for 'immediate' declaration of the final comprehensive result.

Any candidate that scores 50% wins the election. If neither of them got the mandatory 50%, there will be a run-off.

The tight race between the two candidates implies that a run-off between them is very likely.

The electoral guidelines stipulate that the result must be released within 72 hours after the conclusion of voting.

By that rule, the time allowed the electoral commission for the declaration of the final result would elapse at 5pm.

But a top electoral official assured THISDAY last night in Accra that the commission might be ready with the full result anytime between 12 midnight and 5pm today.

The NDC called on the Electoral Commission of Ghana (ECG) to release the results as soon as possible. The Campaign Coordinator of NDC, Mr. Alex Segbefia, said the party had secured a working majority in the 230-seat Ghana Parliament and had won in seven out of the total 10 regions. It said the trend was a strong indication of what the final outcome of the presidential result would be.

"Knowing that it is losing the election, the NPP is up to its usual mischief. It is playing a psychological game by getting its supporters to start jubilating in preparation for implementing whatever plans they may have hatched," the opposition party said.

The statement assured that the NDC would continue to remain vigilant but will not be provoked into any action that will play into the hands of the NPP. The NDC called on the media not to allow itself to be used as a conduit to propagate false election results. The national chairman of the party, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, had earlier on Monday, while speaking on developments in the country since Sunday's election, alleged that the NDC flagbearer, was comfortably leading based on available information.

He declared that the opposition party was on its way to forming the next government to lead Ghana to higher levels. He said: "We shall do everything within our democratic rights to ensure that the legitimate person is named as President of the country."

The claims of the NDC were swiftly countered by the ruling NPP through a press statement issued by its national campaign chairman, Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey. He accused the NDC of routinely issuing inflammatory statements designed to set the stage for a state of confusion.

The NPP said: "There are rules and regulations governing the process of declaration of results and challenges of those results. Once the challenges have been exhausted the Electoral commission will declare the results. Figures do not lie. We in trhe NPP are very confident that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will in due course be declared President-elect of Ghana. We ask fellow citizens to maintain their keen interest in the declaration of the presidential ballot results and wait for the EC's official declaration.

"We call on the NDC to show proper leadership and cease from implementing their disruptive agenda. We further call on our media to continue to play an active, responsible role in maintaining the peace of our nation by properly reporting facts and refraining from allowing people of ill intent the opportunity to propagate propaganda.

The chairman of ECG, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, however, in a terse two-paragraph statement yesterday said: "The Electoral Commission wishes to remind all Ghanaians that it is the only body in the country authorised by law to conduct public elections and declare the results. The commission will announce the time and place for the declaration of the 2008 presidential election results when it is ready to do so."In the meantime, the Commission urges the general public to ignore any person or group that purports to announce the final result of the 2008 presidential election."

Meanwhile, the conduct of the election continued to receive more endorsements yesterday with the African Union (AU), European Union (EU), the Carter Foundation and the Commonwealth Observer Missions hailing the poll as orderly, peaceful and transparent.

The four observer missions made their observations known through separate press conferences in Accra yesterday. The leader of the AU Observer Team and former Tanzanian Prime Minister, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, counselled Ghanaian authorities to further perfect their electoral process to ensure that results of future presidential elections are released on time.