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Ghanaians went to polling stations on Sunday to elect a new president and the National Assembly.
  
The Electoral Commission (EC) said 21,004 polling stations had been set up nation wide for some 12.8 million registered voters, and the elections would be the second time in Ghana's 51-year history that a democratically elected president would hand over power to another. Hours after voting started, national TV channel GTV footage showed a generally orderly and peaceful election.
  
At the Ringway Estate voting station in downtown Accra, voting proceeded in good order. Two fire service officers were seen at the spot for security, while a pickup car with four soldiers passed by occasionally for security checks.
  
Nana Ohene-Ntow, General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has told Xinhua that joint security forces of soldiers, police and government officials had been sent to polling stations and he believed the elections would be peacefully.
  
The EC website said a large group of foreign observers, including a team of 200 from the Economic Community of the  West African States (ECOWAS), have come to Ghana to monitor the elections.
  
Two observers from the Canadian High Commission and several others from Ghanaian media were seen at the Ringway Estate voting site.
  
Eight candidates have registered for the presidential race, and various opinion polls have signaled NPP candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and John Evans Atta Mills of the main opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be the top two hopefuls.
  
The other six candidates include Edward Nasigrie Mahama of People's National Convention (PNC), Emmanuel Ansah Antwi of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Thomas Ward-Brew of Democratic People's Party (DPP), Paa Kwesi Nduom of Convention People's Party (CPP), Kwamena Adjei of Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) and independent candidate Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah.
  
Result of the presidential race is expected to come out Wednesday. If no candidate could win in the first round, there would be a run-off between the top-two candidates in two weeks, according to the EC.
  
For the parliamentary election, a total of 1,060 candidates have filed nominations to contest for seats in the 230-seat legislature. Of the candidates, 957 are males and 103 females.
    
The outcome of the poll is rather difficult to predict as Ghana has no scientific opinion polling system. All the parties claim their presidential candidates would win in the first round and collect more than half of the parliamentary seats at stake.
     
Ghana borders Cote d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The capital is Accra. 
   
With a territory of 238,537 square km, Ghana is a divided into 10 regions, subdivided into a total of 138 counties. A 2005 estimate put the nation's population at some 22 million.
   
Once a British colony,  Ghana was the first African nation to achieve independence from Britain in 1957 and was created as a parliamentary democracy followed by alternating military and civilian governments.
  
In January 1993, military government gave way to the Fourth Republic after presidential and parliamentary elections in late 1992. 
  
Ghana's constitution divides powers among a president, parliament, cabinet, Council of State, and an independent judiciary. The government is elected by universal suffrage.