Ghanaians Vote For Change

Ghana's vice president conceded defeat to a veteran opposition leader early Saturday in a runoff election to choose a successor to longtime President Jerry Rawlings, marking the end of an era for this West African country.

With most votes counted, it was clear John Agyekum Kuffuor had won Thursday's vote, John Atta Mills said in a statement.

"I would like on behalf of the (ruling party) and its millions of supporters to congratulate Mr. Kuffuor for his electoral victory," Mills said. "As an outgoing government, we pledge to make his transition into office as smooth as possible."

Kuffuor thanked Mills for his "graciousness" and pledged to cooperate with his National Democratic Congress.

With votes counted in 194 of 200 constituencies, Kuffuor had 57 percent support, compared to 43 percent for Mills, Rawlings' chosen successor.

Scattered clashes and accusations of intimidation marred Thursday's election. Opposition observers said they had been harassed by government supporters, who prevented them from monitoring voting at some polling stations in the capital, Accra, the nearby port city of Tema and the eastern Volta Region.

In other parts of the country, however, balloting progressed smoothly with 57.7 percent of the country's nearly 11 million registered voters casting ballots, election officials said.

The runoff became necessary after neither candidate received the 50 percent required for an outright win in the first round of voting on Dec. 7. Kuffuor, a British-trained lawyer and veteran politician, won 48.4 percent of the vote. Mills won 44.8 percent.

Five other candidates who together took only a small percentage of the first-round vote endorsed Kuffuor in the second round.

Rawlings, a charismatic former fighter pilot, has dominated politics in this West African country for two decades. Originally a brutal military dictator, he embraced democratic and free-market ideals in the 1990s, becoming a darling of Western donors.

He won multiparty elections in 1992 and 1996, but is barred by the constitution from running for another four-year term.

His departure on Jan. 7 marks a rare commitment to democratic change in a region characterized by repressive leaders and flawed elections.

But his overwhelming popularity has dimmed in recent years, as the country's once-thriving economy declined. Prices for Ghana's chief exports, cocoa and gold, plummeted as oil prices rose.

Kuffuor, who campaigned on a platform of "positive change," called attention to repeated accusations of corruption and human rights abuses against the Rawlings government.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan commended the leaders and voters in his native Ghana on Friday for "the transparent and peaceful manner in which the elections were conducted."

"With these elections, Ghana has demonstrated that democracy and its institutions continue to take root in Africa," he said, according to a statement read y deputy U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva.

Ghana, a country of 19.5 million people, is slightly smaller than Oregon. It was the first former African colony to gain independence, in 1957

By KWASI KPODO