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Ghana Election Tight But Peaceful by Enapesunday(m): 2:56pm On Dec 08, 2016 |
Ghanaians turned out
in large numbers on
Wednesday as
President John
Mahama faced off
opposition
frontrunner Nana
Akufo-Addo in general
elections. DW
correspondents said
voting was slow but
peaceful.
Three hours in the queue of
an Accra polling station
have turned Azazariah
Norteyi into an angry man.
"The process is very bad.
The queue is not moving at
all. People are just
squeezing themselves in
here and there," he told a
DW correspondent in front
of a polling station in
Ghana's capital.
Interest in the elections was
high across the country
with a large chunk of the 15
million registered voters
turning out. Many began
lining up at the 29,000
polling stations at dawn,
sometimes waiting for
hours before they could cast
their ballots.
"There are two major
candidates and they have
two different agenda for the
country so, I believe is very
critical for us to decide
which way is good for the
country," a voter who only
identified himself as Seth
told a DW correspondent in
Accra.
Tight neck to neck
race
The polls are expected to be
a neck to neck race between
incumbent president John
Dramani Mahama, who's
seeking a second four-year
term, and his closest rival
Nana Akufo-Addo. Akufo-
Addo, 72, a former foreign
minister, is making his
third and likely final run
for the country's top job.
Both have pledged to rebuilt
Ghana's battered economy,
fight corruption and create
jobs for the country's
unemployed. They also
promise to solve the
country's persistent energy
crisis that has led to a 10-
percent-drop in economic
growth between 2011 and
2015.
Both candidates
commended Ghanaians for
the conduct of the polls.
President Mahama is running
for a second term of office
"I think Ghana's democracy
has matured. This election
is going to consolidate that
democracy further,"
President Mahama told
journalists after casting his
vote in his northern home
region of Bole.
'I find the atmosphere
quite calm' - ex-
president
Former president Jerry
Rawlings echoed similar
sentiments after casting his
ballot at a polling station in
Accra.
"I find the atmosphere quite
calm and I hope it continues
this way," Rawlings, who
left office in the year 2001,
told reporters.
Election observers from
Britain, the African Union
and the West African
economic bloc ECOWAS are
monitoring the polls,
together with more than
8,000 local observers.
"It is okay. These are some
of the teething things,
people trying to find out 'I
voted here, but now there is
a longer queue', that's the
most that we have seen. We
don't really think that there
is a problem,' local election
observer Fred Deegbe told
DW.
More than 70 volunteers at
the Social Media Tracking
Centre were digging
through Ghana's social
networks across the day to
detect hate speech,
spreading of rumors or any
election-related incidents.
Final results expected
by Friday
"If there are some issues,
we can raise the red flag
and pass it onto
the appropriate
authorities," the centre's
director Kwame Ahiagbenu
told DW.
Seven candidates are vying for
the presidency
Many Ghanaian voters were
hoping for a peaceful voting
process after a supporter of
the main opposition party
NPP was beaten to death
and six others critically
wounded in a rare outburst
of pre-election violence on
Monday.
Last week, all seven
presidential candidates had
made a pledge to follow
election rules and oppose
violence. A heavy police
and military presence at
polling stations and major
roads contributed to the
peaceful conduct of the
polls.
"We should use this
particular day as a festival,
as an occasion to enjoy
ourselves. Even if we are
going to retain our
president or if we are going
to elect new president, we
are all one. One people, one
country, one destiny," voter
Ken Addo told a DW
correspondent in the capital
Accra.
First results will be released
on Thursday, with the final
outcome expected on
Friday.
|
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