NPP Demands Recount in southern poll

As early results trickled in Friday from Ghana's closely fought general elections, the opposition demanded a recount in a southern constituency it lost by a razor-thin margin to the ruling party.

"They will retabulate the results" in the Ayawaso East constituency of Nima district, said Dan Botwe, general secretary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), which is up against backers of charismatic outgoing leader Jerry Rawlings.

"It's supposed to be done today," Botwe told AFP.

Under Ghanaian electoral law, a party is entitled to demand one recount on the spot, international election observer Greg Quinn told AFP, adding that any further challenge would have to go through the courts.

The new tally is likely to be carried out under close impartial scrutiny, said Quinn, an information officer at the British High Commission (embassy) here.

The NPP's challenge in Nima, on Ghana's Gulf of Guinea coast, is the first arising from Thursday's presidential and parliamentary elections, which are expected to hand the NPP important gains in parliament.

Already the party has wrested 16 of the NDC's 133 seats in the outgoing parliament, including those of the current interior and agriculture ministers.

The NDC's Greater Accra Region minister, Joshua Alabi, also lost his seat in the 200-member parliament, where the NPP is seeking to improve on its outgoing membership of 61.

Most observers say the presidential race to succeed Rawlings, pitting incumbent Vice President John Atta Mills against the NPP's John Kufuor, is another contest that is too close to call.

Kufuor had a slight edge over incumbent Vice President John Atta Mills with eight percent of Thursday's vote declared.

The 16 constituencies declared so far are all in urban centers where the NPP was expected to do well.

The outcome hinges on results from the rural heartland -- Rawlings' traditional support base -- but these will be slow in coming.

The intellectual Atta Mills, the outgoing president's chosen successor whom people call "Prof", was thought to have little appeal with the grassroots, making the rural north a major battleground during the campaign.

The tall, unassuming Kufuor, dubbed the "gentle giant" by his supporters, lost narrowly to Rawlings in 1996, giving the former coup-maker his second and final term of office under the constitution that restored multi-party politics in Ghana in 1992.

Rawlings, who previously led a military junta after taking power in 1981, must now step down, many say reluctantly, at the age of 53.

The race between Kufuor and Atta Mills has been too close to call, and if neither wins more than the necessary 50 percent plus one to win in the first round, a runoff will be held in three weeks' time.

Voter surveys predicted that the NDC stood to lose up to 25 seats in the elections, especially if smaller parties -- a total of seven have fielded candidates -- pool their resources.

A wild card in the equation is the NDC breakaway New Reform Party (NRP) led by Goosie Tanoh, a former NDC stalwart who set up the party in 1998.

Analysts say the NDC faces splintering if it suffers a severe loss in these elections.

Electoral Commissioner Kwadwo Afari Gyan said Thursday that the final outcome may be announced as late as Sunday.

Some 200 international observers are on hand to monitor the elections and their aftermath, as well as between 12,000 and 14,000 observers from local non-governmental organizations.

The landmark elections, which will mark the first orderly transfer of power in post-independence Ghana if all goes according to plan, were generally peaceful, to the relief of many who feared manipulation, intimidation and violence.