10,698,908 Eligible to Vote

OVER 10 million eligible Ghanaian voters are expected to cast their ballots at 20,096 polling stations throughout the country in today’s general elections to elect a new President and 199 Members of Parliament.

Ashanti Region tops both the registered voters list and number of polling stations with 1,976,962 voters and 3,478 polling stations respectively.

According to latest figures obtained from the Electoral Commission and analysed by this reporter, Greater Accra has 1,844,000 registered voters and 2,255 polling stations.

Eastern Region has 1,187,573 voters and 2,522 polling stations; while the Western Region, with 1,076,778 voters has 2,172 polling stations.

The figures further show that Brong Ahafo Region has 1,041,923 registered voters and 2,292 polling stations with the Volta Region having 983,588 voters and 1,904 polling stations.

Northern Region, with 931,233 registered voters has 1,958 polling stations; Central Region - 870,570 registered voters and 1,710 polling stations.

The Upper East and West Regions have 478,158, 303,264 registered voters respectively, and 814 polling stations respectively.

The elections will be the first time in Ghana's history that a head of state would hand power to another.

He first burst onto the political scene in 1979 when after toppling the Supreme military Council government in a military coup, he led the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) from June 4 to September 24, 1979, and handed over power to the late Dr Hilla Limann of the People's National Party (PNP).

President Rawlings returned to oust Dr Limann on December 31, 1981, and ruled as leader of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) until 1992 when he organised elections in which he won 58 per cent of the votes.

He repeated his feat four years later when he won 57 per cent of the vote.

Seven presidential candidates, all supported by political parties, are contesting the election for the highest office on the land.

They are Vice-President John Atta Mills (National Democratic Congress), Mr John Agyekum Kufuor (New Patriotic Party), Dr Edward Mahama (People's National Convention) and Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby (United Ghana Movement).

The rest are Mr Goosie Tanoh (National Reform Party), Professor George Hagan (Convention People's Party) and Mr Dan Lartey (Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP).

The candidate who wins 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast wins the presidential contest and would rule for four years. In the event of no candidate winning that magic number in the first round, there would be a run-off between the top two candidates in two weeks.

According to figures compiled by the Ghana News Agency, 1,063 parliamentary candidates are contesting the vote but there have been several last-minute pullouts by candidates of opposition parties in favour of the NDC.