Lagos — Ghana's ruling party, New Patriotic Party (NPP), said yesterday it was seeking for security reasons to delay voting scheduled for today in Tain constituency that will decide a knife-edge presidential election. The party has gone to court for this purpose.

At present there is no sign of rescheduling since no announcement has been made to such effect and the court did not order any postponement.

"We have determined that conditions will not be conducive for a free and fair election to be held tomorrow (today), and if there is one we'll not be part of it," NPP Spokesman Arthur Kennedy told private radio station Joy FM.

NPP lawyer Tawia Akyea told the station earlier he was seeking an injunction to have the ballot delayed.

High court judge Edward Amoako Asante adjourned yesterday's hearing to Monday to allow the NPP to serve a notice of the motion to the Electoral Commission and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Problems with last Sunday's presidential run-off ballot meant voting failed to take place in the rural Tain Constituency.

With just over 23,000 votes separating the two main candidates after ballots were counted from Ghana's 229 other constituencies, Tain's 53,000 electors will decide the outcome.

So far, opposition leader John Atta Mills of NDC, leads with 50.13 percent of votes, just ahead of the NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo's 49.87 percent. Mills led in Tain in the inconclusive first round on Dec. 7.

"We're concerned about the safety of ordinary citizens and all of us. We expect that there will be not voting," Kennedy said.

He said President John Kufuor, due to step down on Jan. 7 after serving the maximum two terms in office, had cancelled plans to campaign in Tain for Akufo-Addo ahead of Friday's vote after being advised that the security situation in the area was not conducive to campaigning.

Meanwhile, campaign descended on a remote constituency which is in line to decide which candidate will rule a country that recently discovered oil.

Tain, which measures the equivalent of just 40 miles (65 kilometres) up and across, is the last of 230 constituencies nationwide to vote, after problems with distributing ballot papers halted their participation in last Sunday's run-off poll.

Police and military were deployed throughout the western pocket of land, which holds just over 50,000 eligible voters -- whereas partial results have shown opposition candidate Atta-Mills holding a thin lead of around 23,000 votes over his ruling party rival Nana Akufo-Addo.

Hundreds of activists from both parties marched through the streets of the farming district's towns and villages.

When they came face-to-face they did not confront each other, but communicated with gestures -- rolling their hands, a symbol of change used by the opposition or putting hands out in front, used by the ruling party to indicate moving forward.

Outgoing President Kufuor was reported by local radio to be in Tain yesterday where he was expected to address a ruling party campaign rally. Atta Mills arrived in Tain on Wednesday.

The electoral commission has not indicated when results from Tain could be expected, but observers and analysts say in the absence of a legal order, there is nothing to stop the EC chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan from declaring a winner when all returns are in.

"He is not bound by anything because the court has not issued an order to restrain him from publishing the results," said Nana Oye Lithur, a local lawyer and rights campaigner.

NPP candidate Akufo-Addo said his party had filed complaints with the electoral commission on cases of violence and intimidation against its election monitoring agents in the Volta region.

Some NPP activists later staged peaceful demonstration in Tain district waving placards reading "No Volta, No Tain".

Ruling party supporters had on Wednesday staged a protest outside the EC office against the results released on Tuesday in which police had to use water cannons to disperse the dozens of activists.

According to the state-owned Daily Graphic, police also fired warning shots to disperse the NPP supporters, some of whom wielded clubs and machetes.

The daily added that a senior police office deployed at the EC offices was hit with a stone and had to be hospitalised