Ghana: Voting in Tain despite boycot NPP

  1. Posted on Friday 2 January 2009 - 05:21
    accreporter
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    Kent Mensah, AfricaNews editor in Accra, Ghana
    The New Patriotic Party of Ghana has in a last minute move gone to court to stop voting today in a district of the Brong Ahafo region that could "make a difference" in the knife-edge presidential run-off on Sunday. Voting nevertheless takes place.
    Ghana election Photo: AfricaNews
    The Tain constituency could not vote due to problems in last Sunday's run-off polls. The 53,000 population of this district in western Ghana were scheduled to "choose" who will lead the West African state, that has just dicovered oil in commercial quantities.

    As of Thursday night, NPP's lead counsel, Lawyer Atta-Kyea disclosed on an Accra-based private TV station - Metro TV - that it would be contempt of court if the Electoral Commission goes ahead to conduct Friday's polls. He said there are a lot of outstanding issues of irregularities the ruling party has raised that demand immediate attention before conducting polls in Tain.

    Meanwhile, reports from Tain say the NPP is set to boycott voting in the remote district. The Communications Director of the NPP campaign team, Dr. Arthur Kennedy, told a private radio station - Joy FM - the atmosphere in the rural, western district was not conducive for a free and fair election. Some party supporters were seen on TV news using public address systems to inform NPP supporters not to vote on Friday.

    The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its leading candidate John Atta Mills are unparturbed and engaging in serious campaigns to get people out to vote. He has a narrow lead over the ruling party's Nana Akufo-Addo.

    Soldiers and police have been deployed across the district - the last of Ghana's 230 constituencies to vote.

    Chances

    Akufo-Addo can not realistically win enough support among Tain's 53,000 eligible voters to overturn the lead held by Prof. Atta-Mills, the BBC's Will Ross, in Ghana's capital Accra, said. The NDC won the area in the first round of voting on 7 December and is confident of another victory.

    Prof. Atta-Mills has 50.13% of the approximately nine million votes already cast compared with 49.87% for Mr Akufo-Addo, election officials have said. Just over 23,000 votes separate the two candidates.

    Whoever wins this knife-edge election of Ghana replaces President John Agyekum Kufuor, who is stepping down after serving the maximum two terms in office.

    Ghana is one of Africa's most stable democracies, with peaceful handovers of power.

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