afrol News, 10 December - Today, it is official. Ghana's incumbent President John Agyekum Kufuor has been re-elected for a second four-year term with 52.7 percent of the votes in Tuesday's elections. President Kufuor said the Ghanaian electorate had chosen him with "a clear and convincing voice" and that he accepted the re-election "with thanks and in humility."

The President said this in a short address to the media at his private residence in Accra after the official results of the poll today were announced. "With a single mind, the nation has concluded a vigorously contested presidential and parliamentary election which despite some isolated unfortunate incidents has been free, fair and generally peaceful throughout the whole country," Mr Kufuor noted.

The Ghanaian poll indeed had principally been a victory for democracy and peace in an otherwise troubled region. International and local observers have hailed the good and peaceful organisation of the poll and there were no doubts that the results represented the will of the Ghanaian people.

- The nation is proving itself to the whole world as mature and united a beacon of democracy, with a peaceful, stable and secured environment for its own people and foreigners, President Kufuor said today. More than 80 percent of the electorate had made use of their right to vote, totalling some 8.5 million Ghanaians.

The President today also thanked other contesting presidential candidates, including his main challenger, John Atta Mills, who had polled 44.3 percent of the votes. The challengers and their followers had put up a good contest to advance the cause of the nation's multiparty democracy, he said. "Henceforth, we will all have to work together to build the nation."

After continuing with thanking activist from his New Patriotic Party (NPP), law enforcement agencies, security forces and the media, President Kufuor concluded: "All must continue to maintain the responsible conduct which has resulted in the peace and tranquillity prevailing in the nation to enable the party-elect continue its work with dispatch."

In the parliamentary poll, which was held alongside the presidential election, official results have yet to be published. Unofficial results so far however indicate that President Kufuor's NPP will maintain its parliamentary majority. The NPP looks set to win 129 out of parliament's 230 seats, while Mr Atta Mills' National Democratic Congress (NDC) seems to get 88 seats.

The Ghanaian President today was congratulated from a large number of Ghanaians and from abroad. South African President Thabo Mbeki today congratulated Mr Kufuor and called Ghana "one of the most stable multi-party democracies in the West African region." Also, a delegation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) congratulated the re-elected President already yesterday.

From the ex-colonial power, the British Minister for Africa, Chris Mullin, this evening congratulated President Kufuor on his victory and said he looked forward to "further develop the excellent relations that exist between our two countries." The high turnout and overall transparency, fairness and freedom of the electoral process were "a tribute to Ghanaian democracy," Mr Mullin added.

By staff writer

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