You can't say Gambians don't have models to look up to...

The opposition has won Ghana's parliamentary elections but narrowly failed
to take the presidency outright.
With all but one of the votes declared in the 200 constituencies, the
opposition National Patriotic Party has won 102 seats, beating the ruling
National Democratic Congress, which took 89 seats.

Other parties and independents picked up the remainder, and a by-election
will be held in one constituency where a candidate died last week.

In the presidential poll, opposition candidate John Kufuor picked up 48% of
the vote but it appears he has failed to clinch an outright victory against
his closest rival, the vice-president John Atta Mills.

A second round should be held in 21 days if either candidate fails to secure
on outright victory.

The election was marred by sporadic clashes between supporters of the two
rival camps and a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in the northern Ghanaian
town of Bawku.

At least seven people have been killed and a number of homes and buildings
set on fire - though elsewhere in the country the election passed
peacefully.

The rivals fought over ballot boxes which apparently arrived unaccompanied
by election officials.



Voting was peaceful and orderly in most parts of the country

Mr Mills has the backing of the outgoing president, Jerry Rawlings, who is
stepping down after 19 years in power.

Break with past

The election was expected to be the closest since Ghana's independence in
1957, marking the end of two decades in power for the outgoing president.

But with local media saying that the NPP had received 58% of the vote
compared with 38% for Mr Mills, Ghanaians seemed to have broken with the
past and rejected Mr Rawlings's National Democratic Congress (NDC).



Vice-President Mills lost in the first round

The electoral commission has said final results would be ready within 72
hours of the vote.

Thousands of people gathered in the main square in the capital, Accra, to
watch results being posted there on a billboard the size of a football
pitch.

President Rawlings who seized power through the barrel of a gun but won
multi-party elections in 1992 and 1996, said he would respect the poll
results as long as the election was "fair, genuine and sincere".


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