Polls close in election considered important test for African democracy

Election officials count the ballots after polls closed in the general elections in Accra (Jerome Delay/AP)

Voting closed on Saturday evening in most polling centres throughout Ghana, bringing to an end the presidential and legislative elections poised to be a litmus test for democracy in a region shaken by extremist violence and coups.

The capital, Accra, was almost a ghost town for much of the day. Even vibrant Oxford Street, one of the city’s commercial hubs, saw little activity on the day that Ghanaians went to the polls to elect a new president and 276 legislators.