Mills leads with one constituency to go

The Electoral Commission has announced Professor J.E.A. Mills of the National Democratic Congress is leading in Ghana’s presidential runoff by a marginal 23,055 votes, with one constituency to go.

EC Chairman Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan announced that out of the 229 constituencies whose results the Commission collated, Professor Mills has polled 4,501,466 or 50.13 percent of valid votes cast, while Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party polled 4,478,411 or 49.87 percent

Only one constituency, Tain in the Brong Ahafo Region, did not conduct election on December 28, as a result of the late arrival of electoral materials and the Electoral Commission has decided to run it on December January 2.

Dr Afari Gyan said the NDC raised serious concerns were the election results from particularly Kumasi and other parts of the Ashanti Region, while the NPP also has concerns over some constituencies in the Volta Region.

Announcing that "the name of the game is evidence", he said the NDC has provided some evidence to back its claims while the NPP has assured to provide its own evidence over its concerns over the votes in parts of the Volta Region.

He explained that the closeness of the results has demanded that two things are done:

1. Tain, the outstanding constituency will be run and added to the overall results to determine a clear winner because the results so far are so close. In effect Tain can affect the eventual winner.
   
2. Serious investigations and audit be conducted on the disputed results in Ashanti and Volta and findings included on final determinations.
   
   Tain has a voter population of 53,880, and during the December 7 general election, Nana Akufo-Addo polled 14,935 votes while Prof. Mills polled 16,211 votes. Turn-out on that occasion was 61.03 per cent.
   

JoyOnline, Dec. 30th, 2008