Olawale Olaleye
1 January 2009
Little-known Tain Constituency in Brong Ahafo region of Ghana has now become the new battleground in the country's long drawn presidential election that has already seen one runoff after the first election on December 7, 2008.
A third and final decider in the presidential battle between Nana Addo Adankwa Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) holds tomorrow in Tain Constituency.
Two days ago when the final results of last Sunday's presidential runoff were released amidst growing tension in the West African country, the battle to replace President John Kufuor as the next president had again ended in a deadlock as it happened after the first election.
The Tain constituency cracker is not exactly a complete race, according to analysts; it's a rescheduled poll that is turning out like an ultimate decider.
Voting in Tain constituency runoff did not come off on December 28 because of late arrival of electoral materials.
The Chairman of Ghana's Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, said the vote holds the key to unraveling the ultimate winner of the presidential poll.
Speaking at a news conference, Afari-Gyan said mathematically the results from the constituency could affect the outcome of the runoff because the number of voters in the constituency was more than the difference between NDC's Atta Mills and NPP's Akufo-Addo in the first runoff.
The results from 229 out of the 230 constituencies as announced by the electoral commission showed that Atta Mills polled 4,501,466 votes representing 50.13 per cent of total valid votes cast while Akufo-Addo garnered 4,478,411 votes representing 49.87 per cent. Thus the difference of 23,055 votes could not give Atta Mills the presidency since the number of voters in the Tain constituency was more than the figure.
A to Z of Tain Constituency
*The Tain Constituency (Tain District) of the Brong Ahafo region in Ghana was created November 12, 2003.
*It has a voter-population of 53,880.
*Atta Mills won in the constituency in the December 7 poll. He got 16,211 votes representing 50.7 per cent, while Akufo-Addo polled 14,935 votes representing 46.8 per cent.
*Voter turn-out then was 61.03 per cent.
*Tain was the scene of bitter allegations between NPP and NDC in the December 7 poll. The NPP alleged that the constituency result was manipulated to favour the NDC.
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