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General News of Friday, 26 December 2008

Source: African Elections Project

NDC Hold Big Rally While NPP Takes Regional Rallies Route

Official campaigning for the second run of Ghana's 2008 presidential elections ends midnight today - 26 December 2008, with the two political parties in the race, the New Patriotic Party ( NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) undertaking final campaign rallies.

While the NDC is holding a big rally in the central region of Ghana, the region the party considers to be crucial to if they are going to win the December 28 elections, the ruling NPP is holding regional and mini rallies across the length and breath of the country in light of their second round strategy of "personal touch" . The party believes big rallies are not effective in carrying their message to prospective voters since it lacks one on one interaction.

The December 28 presidential round off race is between two main contenders namely NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo, a 64-year-old lawyer and NDC's Professor John Atta-Mills, a law professor and who is also 64 years old. In the first round which took place on the 7th of December, Nana Akufo-Addo won 49.13% of the vote, ahead of Atta-Mills with 47.92%. The run off became necessary because none of the two leading candidates got the required percentage of 50% plus more.

Currently underway in Accra, the national security elections task force is holding a briefing for a large number of security forces namely the army, Police, Prisons, Fire and Immigration Services, who have a herculean task of ensuring a peaceful elections.