Ghana election still up for grabs

ACCRA, Ghana, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Police turned water hoses on youthful protesters who descended on Ghana's Electoral Commission offices in Accra Wednesday afternoon, witnesses said.

The New Patriotic Party members were protesting against holding a presidential election runoff in the Tain region Friday, the Ghana News Agency reported. The protesters shouted their demand that votes from the Volta region be audited before the election is held in Tain. Some hoisted placards, with one reading "No Volta No Tain."

The youths sang and danced behind barriers mounted by the police on the roads leading to the offices, then surged forward. the police drove them back by spraying water on them, GNA said.

Some Ghana voters have expressed frustration with the Electoral Commission's delay in announcing the winner of the country's runoff election Sunday.

The commission said it deferred declaring a winner because voting won't take place in the Tain area until Friday because off problems getting electoral materials delivered, the Voice of America reported Tuesday.

Commission Chairman Kojo Afari Djan said the gap between the ruling New Patriotic Party's Nana Akufo-Addo and opposition National Democratic Congress's John Atta Mills is so narrow, the results from the Tain constituency could determine the winner.

Of the 229 constituencies tallied, Mills received 4,501,466 votes, or 50.13 percent of the total vote cast, with the Akufo-Addo polling 4,478,411 or 49.87 percent.