Ghana extends voting to Saturday after technical hitch ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana extended voting in its presidential election into a second day, officials said on Friday, after a rash of technical problems prevented thousands of people in the West African state from casting their ballots on time. The decision was broadly accepted by political parties and voters, who hoped the poll would entrench Ghana's reputation as a bulwark of democracy and progress in a region better known for civil wars, coups and corruption. "People who lined up to vote today but were unable to do so will be able to cast their ballot tomorrow," said Election Commissioner Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. Polling stations would reopen at 7:00 a.m. EDT), he said. Many newly introduced electronic fingerprint readers, used to verify people's identities, malfunctioned on Friday, slowing voting and creating long lines at polling stations nationwide that could not be cleared. A spokesman for the main opposition party said the glitches had affected hundreds of thousands of people, though the electoral commission declined to give an estimate. A Reuters correspondent found several polling stations in Accra where fingerprint readers were not working, though other stations completed voting and were tallying ballots. Our line is not moving," said Alice Hayford, a 44-year-old market trader on the western outskirts of the capital Accra, shortly before polls were due to close. The election pits President John Dramani Mahama, who replaced the late John Atta Mills after his death in July, against Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who has vowed to provide free education and root out corruption. Results are expected within two days of polls closing, with a second round possible at the end of December if no one wins an outright majority. Ghana's 2008 election was close enough to spark fears of conflict, but its ability to return from the brink led U.S. President Barack Obama at the time to dub Ghana a "model democracy" in Africa. After casting his ballot in his native Kyebi, in Ghana's east, Akufo-Addo said the outcome of the vote was "in the hands of the Ghanaian people," and said he had seen no signs of fraud. His NPP party issued a statement late on Friday saying "the election is capable of passing of fairly and freely" if voters are allowed to cast their ballots. Ghanaians are also electing a parliament, where Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) has enjoyed a slim majority. Neighboring Ivory Coast tipped into civil war last year after a disputed 2010 poll, and regional neighbors Mali and Guinea-Bissau have both suffered coups this year. Across the capital Accra, evidence of the resource wealth abounds: brightly lit multi-storey buildings, cranes looming over new construction sites, well-paved roads, and billboards advertising banks, cars and mobile phones. Additional reporting by Christian Akorlie; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by David Lewis and Louise Ireland