On Sunday Ghanaians will go to the polls again to vote in their country's presidential runoff election after neither of the two main contenders achieved 50% of the vote earlier this month in Ghana's national elections. Nana Akufo-Addo, a lawyer running for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) faces off against John Atta-Mills, a law professor representing the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). Akufo-Addo received more votes the first time out with 49.1%, but national law requires the winner to receive 50% or more. In the parliamentary elections held on the same day, December 7, the NDC won 113 seats, the NPP 109. Minority parties and independents won the rest of the body's 230 seats.
There are concerns that tensions are rising in the country and among the antagonists and fears as to how those tensions might manifest. Events in Kenya in particular are fresh in many minds, though such fears tend to be reactive rather than based on serious analysis of the particular conditions in Ghana.
