Ghanaians are going to the polls on today, Sunday December 7 2008, to elect a President and 230 Parliamentarians in what promises to be an exciting contest among four front-running political parties - New Patriotic (NPP); National Democratic Congress (NDC); People's National Convention (PNC) and Convention People's Party (CPP). Some political analysts have gone further to narrow the contest down to between the ruling NPP and the main opposition NDC with CPP expected to cause a stir and probably push the contest into a second round.

Polling would start at 07:00 and would continue until 17:00 unless they are extended because of technical reasons. The first results are expected late on Sunday night or early on Monday morning. The Electoral Commission expects all results to be declared within 72 hours.

Election 2008 considered as historic would witness the second uninterrupted handover of power by an elected leader to another elected leader in the country's 51-year political history. It is the fifth successive multi-party elections under the Fourth Republic. Former President Jerry Rawlings, who transformed himself from a military leader into a democratically elected president in 1992 on the ticket of the NDC, served his full two terms. His term of office ended on January 6, 2001.

President John Agyekum Kufuor, who won the presidency on the ticket of the NPP, would be the second Ghanaian elected leader to hand over to another elected leader.

Seven political parties and an independent candidate are contesting for the single presidential slot while a total of 1,060 parliamentary candidates are slugging it out for seats in the 230-seat Parliament. Statistics from the EC Research and Monitoring Department made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra indicate that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are contesting in 229 Constituencies.

The NPP is contesting for 21 out of the 22 constituencies in the Western Region whiles the NDC is contesting 38 out of 39 constituencies in the Ashanti Region.

The Convention People's Party (CPP) is contesting in 206 constituencies; People's National Convention (PNC) 129; Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) 108; Democratic People's Party (DPP) 49; Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) 10; and New Vision Party (NVP) four. The rest are: Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) two seats; Ghana National Party (GNP) one seat and 95 independent candidates. Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), told Ghana News Agency that the voting procedures remain the same. "The voting pattern is transparent and at each point of the voting process there is an identifiable glaring system, which would make it impossible for any one to cheat.

"The result of any polling station where the number of votes cast would exceed the number of registered voters would be cancelled." Dr Afari-Gyan urged Ghanaians, especially political party representatives, to avoid making wild allegations about imagined electoral fraud and suspicions because one would not get things done in their favour.
He said voting ends official at 1700 hours and the entire process would take place in the open view of the public.
The EC Chairman said Presiding Officers in-charge of polling stations would inspect the ballot papers in the presence of the agents, enter the total number, show the ballot boxes to the public to ascertain that they were empty and then place them in the open for voting. Dr Afari-Gyan reiterated that accredited local and international observers, journalists, national and regional executive members of contesting political parties, security personnel, contesting candidates and spouses and monitors are permitted to visit the polling stations. He advised all accredited officials to wear their prescribed identification tag - exhibiting their photograph, name, organisation and mandate.