Post date: Dec 08, 2012 5:54:25 PM
Ghanaians queue up for a second day to cast their ballots in presidential and parliamentary elections after technical hitches forced authorities to extend voting in some areas in the West African state.
ACCRA, GHANA (DECEMBER 8, 2012) (REUTERS) - Exhausted Ghanaians queued up for a second day to cast their ballots in presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday (December 8) after technical hitches forced authorities to extend voting in some areas.
Many newly-introduced electronic fingerprint readers, used to verify people's identities, malfunctioned on Friday (December 7), slowing voting and creating long lines at polling stations nationwide that could not be cleared.Voter Edwin Kojo arrived to vote early on Friday morning only to be told eventually he would have to come back on Saturday to cast his ballot.
"I was here, you know the queue was very long, so I came here around, 4:30, 5 - no, 4:30 exactly, and I was here for a very long time. I learned the machine was faulty, it wasn't back so we had to wait and later we were told we have to go home and come tomorrow morning."
President John Dramani Mahama, who replaced the late John Atta Mills after his death in July, faces main rival Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who has vowed to provide free education and root out graft.
Opinion polls point to a tight race, raising the prospect of a repeat of the near-deadlock of the 2008 elections, in which Mills defeated Akufo-Addo in a run-off with a margin of less than 1 percent.
The decision was broadly accepted by Ghanaians who hope the poll will burnish their country's reputation as a bulwark of democracy and progress in a region better known for civil wars, coups and corruption.
Local observers said monitoring occurred during both days at voting stations and the extension of voting would not have an effect on the election's credibility.
"It has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the results. I've realised from yesterday and today that the security services are at post, they are doing their work very well. And the monitors, we are also here and I have seen that, day one and day two, there have not been basic differences in the voting pattern. And there has not, so far, been violence throughout Kotobabi," local observer George Baba said.
A spokesman for the main opposition party said the glitches had affected hundreds of thousands of people. The electoral commission declined to give a number.
A campaign manager for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the rule of law would prevail in Ghana.
"We want to assure the whole nation, that as a party, as a Government, as a campaign team, we will be law abiding, we respect the laws of this land, we respect the rules of the game and we believe that at the end of the day the Electoral Commission will speak," Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah said.
Results are expected by Monday, with a second round possible at the end of December if no one wins an outright majority. Ghanaians are also electing a parliament, where Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) has enjoyed a slim majority.
Ghana has had five peaceful and constitutional transfers of power since its last coup in 1981, in stark contrast to the turmoil that surrounds it in the region.