Tight race in Ghana election as votes are counted

ACCRA, Ghana: Preliminary results from Ghana's presidential poll indicate a tight race between President John Dramani Mahama and opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo.
Results published yesterday by Ghana's electoral body show Akufo-Addo in the lead by about 2 percent, but only 117 out of 275 constituencies had been officially reported by noon.
People in Ghana's capital have been glued to their radios since Friday night as local media announce results from polling stations. One private radio station has already predicted a win for Mahama, and people have celebrated in the streets, but official results could be days away.
International observers endorsed Ghana's presidential and parliamentary elections despite delays at polling stations that pushed voting into a second day Saturday.
"All of Africa was looking at Ghana to make sure that they live up to their reputation and their name of being a mature democracy," said Ahmed Issak Hassan, head of an observer mission from the South Africa-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa. "I think so far the people of Ghana, the political leadership have lived up to that expectation," said Hassan on Saturday.
"The people of Ghana and the leadership need to be commended," he said in a preliminary assessment of the election. Hassan is also the chairman of Kenya's electoral commission.
On Friday ballot materials arrived hours late to polling stations and many of the biometric voter verification machines broke down, causing long delays.
Electoral chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said no incidents of fraud or violence have been confirmed. Yet rumors of misconduct have been rife.
Police fired water cannons and tear gas on hundreds of opposition party supporters Saturday who were protesting outside a building in northern Accra where they suspected ballots from the presidential and parliamentary election were being counted by a private company.
"They had some young supporters of political parties demanding to know what was going on in a particular house," said Ghana police spokesman Arthur Cephas. "Police came in to restore order. We brought all our management to get youth off the facility, to calm them down."