Turnout May Hold Key to Ghana Presidential Race

ACCRA, Ghana--Ghanaians choose a successor to their charismatic President Jerry Rawlings Thursday with opposition leader John Kufuor taking a first-round lead into a run-off, but the result could depend on the turnout.

Rawlings, a radical firebrand who twice seized power before embracing political and economic reform, is standing down after almost two decades out of respect for a constitutional clause denying him a third elected term.

But as the West African nation took a mandatory eve-of-vote break from campaigning Wednesday, his vice-president and anointed successor John Atta Mills had some ground to make up if he is to succeed him.

"I'll form a government made up of new faces," Mills said on Tuesday, the final day of campaigning, during an interview with a local language radio station in the capital Accra.

"I want to assure Ghanaians that this is going to be a new team with new faces, which will be moving in a new direction," Mills, 56, said in one of his broadcast commercials.

Kufuor, a Christian and a lawyer aged 63, finished runner-up to Rawlings in the 1996 presidential election. This year, he occupied pole-position on the eve of polling. In the December 7 first-round, Kufuor won 48.35 percent of votes cast, less than two percentage points short of an outright majority. Mills won 44.85 percent. Kufuor also enjoys the support of all five eliminated candidates, who together polled 6.8 percent in the first round.

HUNGER FOR CHANGE

Many voters appear hungry for change. Despite years of belt-tightening, the economy, based on gold and cocoa, is still struggling with little sign of respite on the horizon.