Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, presidential candidate of the NPP, on Sunday declared his readiness for a run off of the presidential election. Speaking to newsmen at the NPP National Headquarters in Accra he said he accepts the provisional results declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) and looks forward to the run off.

Mr Kufuor's 3,104,393 votes or 48.44 per cent in the election could not give him an automatic win as it fell short of the 50 per cent plus one of popular vote prescribed by the constitution. Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the NDC polled 2871,051 or 44.8 per cent. The NPP flagbearer said, "we accept the challenge of a second round. We are confident that we shall beat the NDC again.

Those who called for change have had their hopes realised and we need the support of all those people to finish off". He called on his supporters to calm saying; "you need to be calm and confident if you want the leadership of the party to guide you into winning the second round".

Mr Kufuor commended Ghanaians for exhibiting "such maturity in democratic practice". The EC has twenty-one days to organise the run-off between the first two candidates after its formal declaration of election results.