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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Ghana ruling party chief holds slim vote lead for president |
| 2008-12-10 |
| ACCRA (AFP) — The head of Ghana's ruling party Tuesday held a slim lead in a presidential election that observers said reinforced the country's democratic tradition and could set an example for the rest of Africa. With ballots from three-quarters of the country's constituencies counted, Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) moved ahead of his rival by 259,589 votes. Official results from 175 of the 230 electoral constituencies put Akufo-Addo in the lead with 3,551,662 votes against 3,292,073 votes for John Atta-Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). Unofficial results from 224 constituencies gave Akufo-Addo the edge with 49.5 percent of the votes against Mills' 47.6 percent. A candidate needs more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off. The NDC, whose candidate Mills is making his third bid for the presidency, said it was poised for victory. Earlier it had accused the ruling NPP of trying to rig the election with the help of the country's security forces. Both the NPP and the military denied the allegations. Despite opposition claims of vote rigging, independent local and international observers called Sunday's vote open and credible. The elections "have, so far, been conducted in an open, transparent and competitive environment," the team of observers from the European Union said Tuesday. EU chief election observer Nickolay Mladenov said Ghana has consolidated its democracy for more than a decade and "the December 7 election reflects that democratic culture." |
| Posted by:Steve White |