Polling opens in Ghana to find Rawlings' successor

Voting began in Ghana on Thursday in a presidential election run-off to find a successor to President Jerry Rawlings, who is stepping down after 19 years in power.

His vice-president and anointed successor John Atta Mills is running for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was ahead by 48.35 percent to Mills' 44.85 percent in the first round on December 7.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT) and will close at 5 p.m. (1700 GMT). There are 10.6 million registered voters and turnout in the first round was just over 60 percent.

At one polling station in the Teshie-Nungua residential neighbourhood in Accra, Akosua Ohenba-Gyambibi, a 31-year-old secretary, was near the front of the queue to vote.

"Last time I was here (on December 7) the queue was much longer," she said, wondering whether people were out of the capital because of the holiday period.