Ghana holds simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday.

President John Kufuor, who will celebrate his 70th birthday the following day, is due to stand down on Jan. 7 after serving the maximum two elected four-year terms allowed by the West African country's constitution.

Here are brief details of the elections and main candidates.

** Around 12.4 million people are registered to vote out of a population of around 23 million. Some 21,004 polling stations are due to open from 7 a.m. to 5

p.m. (0700-1700 GMT).

** Eight presidential candidates are standing to replace Kufuor, and around 1,000 parliamentary candidates are competing for 230 seats in the National Assembly in Ghana's fifth set of national elections since a democratic transition in 1992.

** Ballot counting begins immediately at polling stations, with results expected not later than 72 hours after polls close.

** Some 29,000 security force personnel, mainly police, are involved in election-related operations.

** Analysts expect a close presidential race between the two major contenders and that neither will win the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a run-off

on Dec. 28.

** Kufuor won in the first round in 2004 with 52.45 percent of the vote, compared to 44.6 percent for John Atta Mills.

** Parliamentary results in the 2004 vote were as follows:

New Patriotic Party (NPP) - 128 seats

National Democratic Congress (NDC) - 94 seats

People's National Convention (PNC) - 4 seats

Convention People's Party (CPP) - 3 seats

Independent - 1 seat

PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNERS:

** British-schooled lawyer and economics graduate Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 64, is standing for Kufuor's ruling NPP, of which he is a founding member.

Akufo-Addo, a member of parliament who served in Kufuor's government as attorney general and foreign minister, is expected to benefit from the support and reach of the ruling party, which may give him an edge in a tight contest.

He is the son of former Ghanaian President Edward Akufo-Addo and an Akan from the Akyem royal family in Ghana's Eastern region. He was educated at Lancing College, a boarding school in Sussex, England, and was later called to the English bar and also worked as a lawyer in France.

Married with five children, he lists jazz, highlife and cricket among his hobbies.

Akufo-Addo's running partner is Mahamudu Bawumiah, 45, until recently deputy governor of the central bank and a son of a former chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) which regulates the important cocoa sector in Ghana, the world's second biggest grower after neighbouring Ivory Coast.

** Opposition NDC candidate John Evans Atta Mills is standing as president for a third time after losing twice to Kufuor. Mills, also 64, is a tax law lecturer

and was deputy to former President Jerry Rawlings during his final term.

Fiery former coup leader Rawlings stood down after elections in 2000 after two elected terms under the democratic constitution he himself had introduced, but Mills, his chosen successor, lost the election.

Mills is Akan, hailing from Ekumfi Otuam in the Central region. He studied law both at London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and as a Fulbright scholar at Stanford Law School in the United States.

Mills was national tax commissioner under Rawlings before being promoted to the vice-presidency.

He is a keen swimmer and hockey player and once played for the national team. He is married and has a 19-year-old son.

Mills's running mate is northern-born John Mahama, a member of parliament who was minister of communications under Rawlings.

** Papa Kwesi Nduom, of the opposition Convention People's Party is a potential king-maker in the event of a run-off vote. Nduom, 55, studied at the University of Wisconsin and is a businessman and politician.

He hails from Ghana's southern coastal town of Elmina, known by tourists for its imposing twin forts, used by Europeans for a transatlantic slave trade that thrived into the 19th century.