Africans hail Ghana election as model

People held the flag of the National Democratic Congress as they gathered in Accra yesterday to celebrate the election of opposition leader John Atta Mills as Ghana's next president. (Luc Gnago/ Reuters)

ACCRA, Ghana - Ghana's largely peaceful and credible presidential election was a rare example of a functioning democracy in Africa and should be a model for the continent, African leaders and voters said yesterday.

Much attention in Africa and elsewhere was focused on the Ghanaian vote after a year of political crises, many of them violent, tarnished Africa's democratic credentials.

Opposition candidate John Atta Mills was declared the winner Saturday after the closely fought election in the gold and cocoa exporter was settled by a runoff.

"John Atta Mills' victory and the conduct of the people of Ghana provides a rare example of democracy at work in Africa," said Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister.

While some violence was reported, international observers said the vote was mostly peaceful, in contrast with many other African countries, where democracy was battered in 2008.

More than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence in Kenya last year. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have been deadlocked for months over a power-sharing agreement after disputed elections.

Mauritania's first freely elected leader was overthrown in a military coup in August, and army officers in Guinea took power after the death of President Lansana Conte in December.

South Africa is to go to the polls in March in what analysts expect will be its most tense vote since the end of apartheid in 1994, after a power struggle split the ruling African National Congress last year.

Ghana's neighbor Ivory Coast again postponed presidential elections last year, and analysts say they are unlikely to be held before the end of 2009 because of delays in disarmament and voter registration.

"In this country, elections are always held in chaos, and it's the strongest who wins," said taxi driver Alpha Kante in Abidjan. "If Ghanaians have voted for a new president without making a fuss, it's good, and we must try to do the same."

REUTERS