As Ghanaians head to the polls in what is expected to be a keenly contested vote between President Nana Akufo-Addo and John Mahama of the  National Democratic Congress party (NDC), our  journalist Ignatius Annor  was interviewed by our sister channel Euronews on the stakes of the election.

Ignatius Annor : These are two main rivals as you stated. John Mahama is running for the third time. He’s the younger one as far as the race is concerned. And Nana Akufo Addo of the New Patriotic Party is running for the fourth time. He ran in 2008 and lost twice and then on the third occasion he was successful. This is his fourth attempt. As to whether he would be re-elected, is something we have to wait and see as Ghana’s electoral commission had stated that it would announce the results of the election within 24 hours, which is a first. The electoral commission has come under a lot of hit, especially when it decided to overhaul the voters register just a few months to the elections. So like you said it’s going to be a very close call.

Rosie Wright : And the two men signed what’s been a very symbolic peace pact on Friday, just explain why that was necessary and what that means?

Ignatius Annor : And just so you know this is the third time that has happened. And it’s very significant this time round because the south of Ghana which is known as the Volta region, is what you would call the ‘’World Bank’’ or the stronghold of the opposition, National democratic congress. A few months ago, there were issues about secessionists trying to break away from the Republic of Ghana and the government which does not get enough votes from the south of Ghana, decided to send more police and military enforcement into the region, which drew pushback from the chiefs and people. People thought that it was a way the government was employing to gag the people not to turn up and vote massively for the opposition party. So the significance is to ensure the commitment of both parties to peace and not violence in this election.