Ghanaians voted for a new president on Sunday in a tight race between two foreign-educated lawyers hoping to lead the West African nation into an era of greater prosperity thanks to offshore oil. The elections are widely expected to be peaceful. That would be a boost for African democracy campaigners after electoral violence in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Voters waited in their hundreds at some polling stations as the searing sun rose over the coastal capital Accra. “I was here at 3.15 (0315 GMT). I'm anxious for my party to win,” Gregoire Adukpo, 62, a retired private security official, said at a polling station set up at a Catholic Church in Accra. In Accra's Latebiorkorshie area, electoral officer Solomon Kpabi opened the vote with a prayer, prompting a loud “Amen!” and applause from hundreds of people waiting to vote. Polling began after only short delays in most places, but witnesses said there were holdups of an hour or more at some polling stations, leading to frustration among those waiting. President John Kufuor, who turns 70 on Monday, is standing down on Jan. 7 after serving the maximum two terms. “What excites me is that I've ended my tenure, I believe, on a good note with the entire nation showing readiness to help select my successor and members of the next parliament. So far so good,” Kufuor said after voting near his home in one of Accra's most exclusive neighborhoods. He has asked Ghanaians to deliver a first-round win to his New Patriotic Party's (NPP) chosen successor Nana Akufo-Addo, a British-trained lawyer and son of a former president. Seven other candidates are standing for the presidency but many Ghanaians expect a Dec. 28 run-off between Akufo-Addo and main opposition candidate and tax law expert John Atta Mills, of the center-left National Democratic Congress. Voters are also electing the National Assembly, which is currently dominated by Kufuour's NPP with 128 of the 230 seats.
