Ghana cops say 5 people killed in election-related violence

The election has tested the West African nation''s credentials as one of the continent''s most politically stable countries.

Twenty-one violent outbreaks have been identified as election-related across the West African country, Ghana''s Police Service said Wednesday. It urged calm as the nation awaits results.

However, hundreds of opposition supporters demonstrated Wednesday at the Electoral Commission buildings in the capital, Accra, demanding that the election results be announced quickly.

Electoral Commission chairman Jean Mensah has said the results will be announced soon, but did not say when. Opposition supporters accused the commission of delaying the results in order to alter the figures.

Ghanaians voted to elect a new president and 275 legislators. There were 12 candidates for president, with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 76, and former president John Dramani Mahama, 62, forecast as the frontrunners.

The two have faced off twice before. Mahama won the 2012 elections, but lost in 2016 to Akufo-Addo. If either of the two heavyweights win, he will serve a second and final term under current constitutional limits.

A candidate must win more than 50 per cent of the vote to win outright and avoid a second round, which would take place in about 21 days.

More than 17 million were registered to vote at more than 38,000 polling stations around the country, with polling stations divided up so that lines are shorter amid the coronavirus pandemic.