Ghana: Presidential Election Too Close to Call

29 December 2008

With more than half the results counted in the second round of Ghana's presidential election, the two candidates are running neck-and-neck.

Provisional results released by the African Elections Project (AEP) in Accra show that with 162 of 230 constituencies reporting, the candidate for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, had 3,216,096 votes, or 49.26 percent of the total, and John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of former ruler Jerry Rawlings had 3,313,337 votes, or 50.74 percent.

Earlier, the AEP reported that 10 hours after voting ended, certified results were coming in slowly. The report continued:

"As at 3.00 hrs GMT Tuesday December 29, the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has started releasing certified results after signature by the two political party’s representative at EC headquarters operational room, called the "strong room," which serves as the national centre for reception of results from the 230 constituencies.

"The final stage of the certification is a final sign-off by Dr. Afari Gyan, chair of Ghana’s Electoral Commission.

"The announcement of provisional results from various constituency collation centres are currently dominating the media airwaves in Ghana early this morning. A lot more results are still expected from both parties' strongholds.

"Currently, no party has a significant lead and each provisional result coming in swings the top position between the NDC and the NPP. In concluding this report we can only point to the fact that election is a very tight race and the results is still too close to call."

The election was forced to a second round after no candidate won 50 percent of votes in the first round on December 7. The NDC won most of the seats in parliament on December 7.

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