Accra - As Ghana gears up for the second round of its presidential election on Sunday, tension is growing in the camps of the two competitors even as fatigue sets in with the electorate.
A run-off became necessary after no candidate in the first run December 7 managed to win over 50 percent.
Sunday's vote will pit Nana Akufo-Addo, a 64-year-old lawyer running for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) against John Atta-Mills, a law professor and also 64, of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
In the first round Akufo-Addo won 49,1 percent of the vote, ahead of Atta-Mills with 47,9 percent, according to the electoral commission.
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'One thing that is difficult is...' But the NDC won most seats in the parliamentary contest, held the same day, securing 113 seats against the ruling party's 109. The rest of the 230 seats went to minority parties and independents.
"Now that it's really close, everybody feels they deserve to win. One can see the desperation," said Kojo Asante, legal and governance programme officer with the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).
"The slant has completely changed, there are (personality) attacks, accusations and counter-accusations, rigging and intelligence reports - left right and centre - all over," he said.
The NDC has accused the NPP of using the early voting exercise on Tuesday - when members of the security forces and electoral commission officials who will be unable to vote on Sunday were allowed to cast their ballots - to rig the election.
The party said that significantly more people voted in the early voting exercise for the second round than for the first.
'...predicting the mind of a Ghanaian voter' Tension in political circles has not spilled over into the electorate, with many voters more interested in Christmas festivities than in the second round, analysts said.
"We don't have the kind of high-pitched mood as in the first round, people are quite relaxed.
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