Kufuor Wins Ghana Presidential Election

John Agyekum Kufuor, flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has won Ghana's 2000 Presidential election, according to figures compiled by the government-owned Ghana News Agency (GNA) Friday.

With results from 192 of the 200 constituencies certified by the Electoral Commission, Kufuor has taken an unassailable lead, polling 3,493,140 votes or 57.22 percent of the votes cast while Vice-President John Atta Mills of the ruling NDC, got 2,611,385 or 42.78 percent.

The difference between both candidates is 811,755 votes, which is higher than the total number of voters in the eight remaining constituencies.

There were slightly over 10 million registered voters, and turnout was put at 57.7 percent.

Following are details from the 192 constituencies:

 Region              Mills           %          Kufuor     %
 Western             186,538        35.95       322,371   64.05
 Central             199,006        39.69       302,414   60.31
 Greater Accra       421,954        40.05       631,506   59.95
 Volta               563,787        89.23       68,041    10.77
 Eastern             269,270        37.59       447,174   62.41
 Ashanti             236,740        19.58       972,640   80.42
 Brong Ahafo         207,678        40.73       302,207   50.27
 Northern            267,175        50.99       256,764   49.01
 Upper East          154,703        57.17       115,880   42.83
 Upper West          104,533        61.97       64,163    38.03
 

Of the total 6,178,208 votes cast, 6,104,525 were valid, and 73,683 rejected.

Albert Kofi Arhin, a Director with the Electoral Commission told the GNA that the international community would appreciate the conduct of the election despite the isolated cases of intimidation and violence recorded in the early hours of election day.

He praised the media for their effective role in informing the Commission of shortages of electoral materials and malpractice at polling stations, which helped the monitoring of the vote.

Thursday's run-off was a straight fight between the two candidates who emerged tops in the first round from a field of seven on 7 December.

The victory fulfils Kufuor's life ambition of becoming the number one citizen of Ghana.