Ghanaians went to polling stations on Sunday morning to elect a new president and the National Assembly.
The country's Electoral Commission said 21,004 polling stations had been set up nationwide for some 12.8 million registered voters.
Eight candidates have registered for the presidential race, and various opinion polls have signaled Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and John Evans Atta Mills of the main opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be the top two hopefuls.
For the parliamentary election, a total of 1,060 candidates have filed nominations to contest for seats in the 230-seat legislature. Major competing parties include the NPP, the NDC, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), and the Peoples National Convention (PNC).
Ghana borders Cote d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The capital is Accra.
With a territory of 238,537 square km, Ghana is a divided into10 regions, subdivided into a total of 138 counties. A 2005 estimate put the nation's population at some 22 million.
Once a British colony, Ghana was the first African nation to achieve independence from Britain in 1957 and was created as a parliamentary democracy followed by alternating military and civilian governments.
In January 1993, military government gave way to the Fourth Republic after presidential and parliamentary elections in late 1992.
Ghana's constitution divides powers among a president, parliament, cabinet, Council of State, and an independent judiciary. The government is elected by universal suffrage.
Source: Xinhua
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