ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's electoral commission said on Tuesday it could not yet announce the result of the presidential election run-off because the contest was too close and voting still had to be held in one final constituency.
With votes counted from 229 of the 230 constituencies, John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) held a slender lead with 50.13 per cent of the votes, while Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had 49.87 percent.
Electoral commission chief Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said that to decide a winner, voting would take place on Friday in the Tain constituency, where "due to circumstances beyond our control," polling did not happen in Sunday's run-off.
"The results are so close that the outcome of the Tain constituency election could affect the eventual winner, so we have decided that the election in Tain will be held on Friday, January 2 and hopefully it will make it possible for us to determine the winner of the presidential run-off," Gyan said.
Tain, in Brong Ahafo, was won by the NDC in the inconclusive first round of voting on December 7, when parliamentary elections were also held.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)
(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)
