EC declares partial result from 229 constituencies

Accra, Dec. 30, GNA - The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan on Tuesday declared results in 229 out of 230 constituencies that gave Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) the lead.

However, he told a press conference that, because of the closeness of the results, voting will take place at Tain Constituency on Friday, January 2, 2008 before he would declare the winner of the 2008 presidential election runoff.

According to the results from the 229 constituencies, Prof. Mills won 50.13 per cent of the votes or 4,501,466, while Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party won 49.87 per cent or 4,478,411.

Dr Afari-Gyan said he and the political parties had met all day to iron out some difficulties. He said the NDC raised serious concerns about the voting and results in "some constituencies in the Ashanti Region and provided evidence since the name of the game is evidence".

He said the NPP also raised concerns about results in some Volta Region but said they would provide the evidence later. "In view of the closeness of the results.we have decided to give out the results in 229 out of the 230 constituencies."

First round results from Tain are: Nana Akufo-Addo had 14,935 votes, while Evans Atta Mills had 16,211 votes. PNC had 165; DFP had 137; CPP had 141; RPD had 53 and the independent party had 231 votes.