Ghana's democracy has taken a great step forward with the achievement of orderly elections opening up a new political arena in the post-Rawlings era.

In the first wide-open vote in the west African country's 43 years since independence, the succession to 19 years under Jerry Rawlings, the charismatic former coup-maker who was elected president eight years ago, was up for grabs.

After the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) came out on top in both the presidential and parliamentary races, Accra's press captured the euphoria of the moment with banner headlines such as "Change, Change, Change at Last" and "The Masses Have Spoken".

The NPP's John Kufuor is tipped to win a runoff against the ruling party candidate, John Atta Mills, having garnered nearly 49 percent of the vote to the incumbent vice president's 45 percent.

And in the 200-seat parliament, the NPP has become the leading force, with at least 97 seats against 93 for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), which occupied more than three-quarters of the outgoing assembly.

Emmanuel Aning of the Institute of Economic Affairs said successful elections were "the first major step towards consolidating the democratic process" in Ghana.

The vote last Thursday passed off peacefully with only one serious flareup in violence, in a northern constituency where clashes between rival sides claimed 10 lives.

The contrast could not be starker with the situation in neighboring Ivory Coast, where possibly three-quarters of the electorate went unheeded in presidential and parliamentary elections, a vacuum replaced by violence.

Compared with "the politics of exclusion in Ivory Coast," what happened in Ghana is "very significant" said Napoleon Abdulai of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa.

"A whole new leadership is coming to the political scene, which is extremely good, unlike in the Ivory Coast," he said.

The 200-strong team of international observers was expected to meet Monday to put their imprimatur on the freeness and fairness of the polling -- the ticket to crucial new flows of foreign aid.

For all the euphoria over the maturing democracy, Ghana's economic outlook is grim.

The economy, crippled by rising prices, unemployment and a rapidly weakening currency, was a pivotal factor in the NPP's strong gains, especially in the cities, where purchasing power has evaporated.

The next government will be strapped with a budget deficit that has forced heavy borrowing from local banks.

"It's impossible that they (the NPP) can deliver on the promises they have made," Communication Minister John Mahama said, adding that the oppositon had "raised the expectations of the electorate dangerously high" during the campaign.

Analyst Aning had grave doubts over the sincerity of Rawlings' repeated pledges to stay out of politics.

He predicted: "Rawlings and his wife (Nana Konadu, a political figure in her own right) will be able to control a Kufuor government much better than a Mills government."

For his part, Rawlings has said he intends to turn to campaigning against malaria and AIDS.

The "truly independent and objective" Independent daily said Monday: "Bad news for mosquitoes, good news for us all."