Change of power will boost western cooperation: analysts

Elections that are set to bring the opposition to power in Ghana will boost the country's standing as an emerging democracy and attract crucial new investment and aid money, analysts said Friday.

As opposition leader John Kufuor was poised to take over the presidency from longtime ruler Jerry Rawlings, "there should be a new era of cooperation with the West," political scientist Mike Oquaye said.

"Aid must be used in a manner that will ensure an economic takeoff, and that requires a certain rational handling of any money that is there," he told AFP.

Rawlings, who seized power in 1981 then legitimized his rule by winning elections in 1992, "has deceived people of the West for a long time" over Ghana's commitment to positive reforms, Oquaye said.

As results showed Kufuor with a comfortable lead over the ruling party candidate, John Atta Mills, in Thursday's presidential race, investors here breathed a sigh of relief.

"We were thinking of packing our bags if Kufuor didn't win," said David Dow, chief technical officer of Westel, a Seattle-based telecommunications firm.

He told AFP that other western companies with interests in Ghana had also calculated that the risks associated with staying on with a National Democratic Congress government would be prohibitive.

The west African country's economy has been on the verge of collapse as a result of economic austerity measures, corruption and financial mismanagement, exacerbated by falling prices for Ghana's top export earners, gold and cocoa.

Ghana has suffered a slackening in aid this year, much of it suspended pending an evaluation of the fairness of the elections and of the new government's commitment to reforms sponsored by the International Monetary Fund.

International observers praised the conduct of a first round of voting on December 7, while Thursday's vote was marred by violent incidents that disrupted polling in some areas and may have depressed turnout.

Nevertheless, a western election observer said Friday that the Electoral Commission could not be faulted, and the generally smooth running of the polling was "quite good for democracy in Ghana."

Oquaye said the Rawlings government simply did not believe in reform. "Privatization is something for just a few people -- Rawlings and his cronies, or something for foreigners, like the Lebanese (business community)."

Dan Botwe, general secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), agreed, saying the election of "people who actually believe in it will make our democratic experiment complete."

"This change is very necessary for the whole atmosphere of genuine democracy," he said, predicting that "true freedom and ... the rule of law will really come into play under our government, (and) free people's energy and talents."