Ghana's voters optimistic in new democracy test ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghanaians voted on Friday in elections that will test one of Africa's most stable democracies as a surge in oil revenues promises to boost development and economic growth. Ghana has earned a reputation as an oasis of progress in West Africa, a part of the world still better known for civil wars, coups, entrenched poverty and corruption. Long lines of people clutching their voter cards waited outside polling stations in the seaside capital Accra. Some brought plastic chairs and bottles of local porridge. Michael Akpabli, 61, who used a walker because of a fractured hip, said he came early because the issues at stake were so important. I am voting for peace, unity and development. I am voting for someone who will be able to translate our dreams into reality," he said. President John Dramani Mahama - who replaced the late John Atta Mills after his death from an illness in July - faces the main opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and six others. Voters will also elect a new parliament. Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) had a slim majority in the outgoing one. Opinion polls point to a tight presidential race, raising the prospect of a repeat of the near deadlock in 2008 elections, in which Mills defeated Akufo-Addo with a margin of less than one percent after a run-off. A second round will be held in three weeks if nobody gets a majority of the vote on Friday. Despite fears of trouble after the 2008 vote, Ghana pulled back from the brink. That was in marked contrast to the civil war after a disputed election in next door Ivory Coast in 2010. Other regional neighbors Mali and Guinea-Bissau have been thrown into chaos by coups. Voting at a polling station in Accra's Nima district, where Akufo-Addo grew up, started with prayers for peace. "We are proud of Ghana and hope that whoever wins will win without complications," said Haruni Safiyu, a 26-year-old laborer moments before casting his ballot. In a radio address late on Thursday, Mahama urged Ghanaians to remain peaceful. "In all this, let us remember that Ghana is bigger and more important than any of us," he said. The stakes are high with rivals competing for a chance to oversee a boom in oil revenues that has brought hopes of increased development in a country where the average person still makes less than $4 a day. But many Ghanaians have been left out. Akufo-Addo, a trained lawyer and son of a former Ghanaian president has criticized the ruling party for the slow pace of job creation and fighting poverty, and says he would use oil money to pay for free primary and secondary education. Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Matthew Tostevin