Ghana’s presidential election will be decided in a December 28 run-off between the two leading contenders after neither won more than half the vote in the first round, the country’s electoral commission said on Wednesday.
The commission said it was still processing parliamentary results from Sunday’s vote in the West African state, which was praised by observers as free and fair and a tribute to Ghana’s healthy democracy on a continent convulsed by poll disputes.
”For now, Ghana represents the progress that is being made in Africa, and investors will take note,” Razia Khan, Africa research head at Standard Chartered Bank, said.
Electoral commission chief Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said neither of the two presidential frontrunners, Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), gained the 50% plus one vote required to win outright in the first round.
Gyan announced the run-off would be on December 28.
He said that with votes counted from all but one of the country’s 230 constituencies, Akufo-Addo had 49,13 % and Mills 47,92%. He put voter turnout at 69,52%.
Besides Akufo-Addo and Mills, six other candidates stood.
Afari-Gyan said ”some disputes and claims” over results of the parliamentary elections needed to be cleared up before they could be announced. He did not say when this would be.
Provisional results showed Mills’s opposition NDC making gains that could put it on a more equal footing in the 230-seat National Assembly with the NPP, which previously had a majority with 128 seats.
Some analysts saw the erosion of the NPP Parliament majority as a punishment vote against the ruling party of President John Kufuor, who steps down in January after the maximum two terms.
”The results reflect a referendum on the performance of the incumbent. It is the people’s verdict,” University of Ghana lecturer Kwame Karikari said.
An NDC victory in Parliament would, if combined with a presidential win for the NPP’s Akufo-Addo in the second round, set up the prospect of a divided government at a time Ghana is moving towards becoming an oil producer in late 2010.
The Gulf of Guinea country, a former British colony regarded by investors as one of Africa’s most promising emerging markets, has seen its cocoa- and gold-exporting economy buffeted this year by fuel and food price rises that have hit family budgets.
Commenting on the likelihood of a divided Parliament, Akufo-Addo pledged to use his experience as a former foreign minister to build consensus if he was elected president.
”As president, I would be in a good position to work in a conscientious manner with the two sides so that our country can forge ahead in development,” he told reporters. — Reuters