Campaigning Over - One Day To Go

Accra -- Campaigning for Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections ended officially on Sunday with the various parties winding down and predicting victory for themselves.

The competition is widely expected to be between two candidates, incumbent President John Agyekum Kufuor and his longtime rival John Evans Atta Mills.

Kufuor from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mills from the National Democratic Convention (NDC), Edward Mahama from the Grand Coalition and George Opesika Aggudey from the Convention People's Party are the four contenders in the presidential election in Ghana, a haven of stability in the turbulent west Africa.

Addressing a large crowd of party supporters at a rally at the Accra Hearts of Oak Training Grounds in Accra, Prof. Mills gave the assurance that NDC "is not going to bring violence. We plead with the Government and peace officers to maintain the peace during and after the elections".

President Kufuor rounded-off his campaign with a rally of the Greater Accra Regional Branch of the NPP at the INDAFA Park at Mamprobi, in Accra. He said every objective Ghanaian would see that the Government under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had for the past four years performed so well and efficiently that its achievements were monumental.

The campaign registered a number of clashes, especially between the two biggest parties, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in northern Ghana.

In the presidential race, should a victor not win more than 50% of votes cast, there would be a run-off between the top two candidates. In the parliamentary race, however, it is first past the post.

The police say they are ready to check any violent acts and have reinforced themselves at "flash points" across the country.

More than 23 000 personnel from the police, fire service, prisons, customs and other services are to be posted to polling stations.

The military will not be directly involved at the polling stations but will be on standby.

Each candidate is allowed to have one observer at each polling station to monitor the vote.

The election is seen as another block in the democracy structure that the West African country is building.

Some 10.288 million people are eligible vote to for the four candidates in the presidential vote and the 230-member parliament, which has increased from the current number of 200.