Ghana's leader John Kufuor is expected to snare a second and final four-year term when voters in the world's number two cocoa grower choose their leader in a presidential election next Tuesday. The poll will be the fourth since multi-party democracy was introduced in 1992 and a successful vote would bolster Ghana's growing reputation as an island of political stability in often chaotic and impoverished West Africa.
Analysts expect Kufuor, a tall, Oxford-educated lawyer known as the "gentle giant", to reap the reward of four years of economic stability in Africa's second biggest gold producer, even though many of its 20 million citizens remain mired in poverty.
"People are prepared to give Kufuor a second term because things are fairly stable," Ben Ephson, executive director of research body Ghanalert, told Reuters. "During our research people said they appreciated his sort of fatherly leadership."
Ghana was the first African nation to gain independence from its colonial ruler after the World War Two, kicking off a wave of decolonisation across the planet's poorest continent after London cut ties in 1957. Post-independence leader Kwame Nkrumah ruled until he was ousted in a 1966 coup, sparking a slew of bloody military uprisings, before a charismatic 32-year-old air force pilot, Jerry Rawlings, seized power in 1979 coup.
After a violent start, Rawlings won praise for shepherding Ghana to democracy. He won polls in 1992 and 1996 before stepping aside in 2000. He handed over candidacy of his National Democratic Congress (NDC) to then vice-president John Atta Mills, who lost to Kufuor in a run-off vote.
Mill's 2004 campaign slogan is "A better Ghana" and he is challenging Kufour's economic record, highlighting price rises for consumer items such as school fees, petrol and utilities.
"They promised Ghanaians a better life; well, where is it?" said Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, a senior Mills campaign aide.
Kufuor's New Patriotic Party (NPP) says "So far so good". It argues the first mandate brought stability to the economy and laid the foundations for private sector growth going forward.
The other two candidates are Edward Mahama, a doctor from the People's National Convention (PNC), and George Aggudey, a businessman from the Convention People's Party (CPP).
There are 10.3 million registered voters and 21,000 polling stations, supervised by an independent electoral commission. Voters will also choose 230 members of parliament on Tuesday from 900 candidates.
Ghana's inflation rate is 12.4 percent, down from 40.5 at the end of 2000. Lending rates are 25 per cent, down from 52 per cent then, and foreign exchange reserves would cover 3.5 months of imports, compared to two weeks when Kufuor took over.