Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Ghana'sNana Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate for the country's ruling party, has regained his lead in vote counting from yesterday's election, which will determine who manages wealth from recent oil discoveries.

Akufo-Addo, 62, has won 2.03 million votes, or 50 percent of the vote from 105 of the country's 230 constituencies, according to results tabulated on the Web site of Accra-based Joy FM radio station, which cited figures collated from individual polling stations. John Atta Mills, his main opponent, has won 1.94 million votes, or 47 percent. He led earlier.

``Its truly close,'' Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, executive director of the Accra-based Center for Democratic Development, said in an interview. ``Its still possible that there will be a clear cut winner but with the slimmest of margins.''

Ghana, the world's second-biggest cocoa grower and Africa's second-largest gold producer, is expected to start exporting oil in 2010 after discoveries off its coast last year. Voting was not disrupted by the sort of widespread unrest witnessed during recent elections in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria that cut economic activity.

``The voting was on the whole peaceful and orderly, and Ghanaians showed extraordinary patience in exercising their right to vote,'' said Baroness Valerie Amos, head of the Commonwealth's observer group in a statement e-mailed late yesterday after polls closed.

Oil Discovery

Christian Owusu-pare, a spokesman for the country's electoral commission, didn't answer calls made to his mobile phone. President John Kufuor, 69, is stepping down after leading the west African nation of 20 million for two consecutive terms.

Neither of the two main candidates is likely to achieve the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round of voting, according to an opinion poll published on Dec. 4 by the Daily Dispatch, an Accra-based newspaper.

The discovery of oil by London-based Tullow Oil Plc and Dallas, Texas-based Kosmos Energy LLC has brought more attention to the closely fought election, Razia Khan, Standard Chartered Bank's head of regional research for Africa, said in an e-mailed note. ``This time around the stakes are higher,'' said Khan.

Platform for Africa

Akufo-Addo, who leads the New Patriotic Party, has promised to continue the pro-business policies of Kufuor that helped economic growth accelerate to 6.3 percent last year from 3.7 percent in 2000 and cut the annual inflation rate to 10.7 percent from 32.9 percent over the same period. Mills, who is head of the National Democratic Congress, has pledged to do more to reduce poverty and help consumers battling high fuel and food prices.

The Daily Dispatch poll forecast Akufo-Addo will obtain between 48.2 percent and 50.2 percent of the vote, while Mills was expected to take between 44.7 percent and 46.7 percent. No margin of error was given in the poll, which it said was conducted on Nov. 15.

``The election tells the international community that we Ghanaians are not violent people,'' Mike Tei, a 27-year old accountant in Accra said as he bought breakfast in the capital's Osu neighborhood. ``The election is a platform for the rest of Africa'' to follow.

The new president will face the effects of the worldwide economic slow down. Declining prices for Ghana's gold exports, coupled with a deceleration in the growth of remittances from Ghanaians abroad may crimp economic growth and widen the current-account deficit, the Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts.

Per Capita Income

``I've ended my tenure, I believe on a positive note, with the entire nation showing readiness to help select my successor,'' outgoing President Kufuor said after casting his vote near his house in Accra. Under the rule, Ghana's per capita income has increased to almost $600 from about $300, according to the ruling party's own figures.

Voting in concurrent parliamentary elections may have resulted in the NPP's 30-seat majority being reduced by more than a third, said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, Middle East and Africa analyst at the New York-based Eurasia Group. Spio-Garbrah expects Mills to win the presidency.

The ``National Democratic Congress is set to emerge with the largest vote share and very likely win the presidency and dramatically close the 30-seat gap in the Ghanaian parliament,'' he said in a note today.

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from its colonial ruler Britain in 1957. The country's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, a proponent of a pan- African government, was ousted in a military takeover in 1966.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emily Bowers in Accra via Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 8, 2008 09:29 EST