Ghana president takes office after tense election

By FRANCIS KOKUTSE

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Ghana's new president took office Wednesday following a peaceful but tense election that secured the country's status as one of the continent's few stable democracies.
Tens of thousands of people crowded Independence Square for the inauguration of John Atta Mills(pictured at swearing -in ), the opposition candidate who won the runoff election with 50.23 percent of the vote. It was the closest election in the West African country's history.
This marked the second time power in Ghana has been transferred from one legitimately elected leader to another, which experts say proves democracy has matured after an era of coups and dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.
But tensions still ran high during this election; some had feared violence could erupt.
Residents of the tiny western district of Tain were unable to take part in the Dec. 28 nationwide runoff because not enough ballots were distributed. A makeup vote was held there Jan. 2 despite the ruling party's attempts to stop it, and Atta Mills widened his lead from 50.13 percent of the vote to 50.23 percent.
The ruling party candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, had threatened to reject the results but withdrew his court challenges and conceded Saturday.
On Wednesday, Ghanaians attending the inauguration festivities seemed glad the contest had ended peacefully.
"I want to see a united Ghana. Whatever happened in the past must be forgotten," said Percy Amoah, 41. "I also do not want any Ghanaian child to go to school under a tree."
Most Ghanaians remain among the world's poorest people, earning an average of $3.80 a day. A tenth of the adult population is unemployed and 40 percent are illiterate.
Ghana is the world's No. 2 cocoa producer and the recent discovery of oil is eventually expected to bring in between $2 billion and $3 billion a year. But Atta Mills will have to struggle with the effects of a global economic downturn, and the poor are already complaining that wealth is not trickling down.
Atta Mills, 64, served as vice president under Jerry Rawlings, a former coup leader who stepped down in 2001, and he must dispel any notion his rule will hark back to Rawlings' strongman era. This election was the third time Atta Mills has run for president.
He spent much of his career teaching at the University of Ghana and served as the country's tax chief under Rawlings. He earned a doctorate from London's School of Oriental and African Studies before becoming a Fulbright scholar at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Courtesy:Associated Press(AP)