Ghana's main opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo said he was "quietly confident" he had beaten incumbent President John Mahama in the presidential elections, a claim promptly rejected by the ruling party.

The electoral commission has yet to release results from this week's elections but the opposition said it had tabulated figures from individual constituencies.

Afuko-Addo told hundreds of supporters in the capital Accra on Thursday that his New Patriotic Party (NPP) had taken a majority of seats in parliament but he called for calm and urged patience to allow the electoral commission time to deliver the results.

"We in the NPP are quietly confident that we have won a famous and historic victory," Akufo-Addo said.

Officials from Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) rejected the claims and said the incumbent was on track for re-election.

Update: As at now, we have received 25 Constituency Collated results at the National Collation Centre #ghanaelection2016 #ghanadecides pic.twitter.com/IID6G9CjPe — Electoral Commission (@ECGhanaOfficial) December 8, 2016

Al Jazeera's Nicholas Haque, reporting from the capital Accra, said that Ghanaians were anxiously waiting for the final results.

"Outside the election commisison, police are out in full force and they want to ensure that the outcome is peaceful," our correspondent said.

Mahama is running for a second and final term in office against the backdrop of an economy that has slowed since he took office in 2013, partly because of a slump in global prices for its exports of gold, cocoa and oil.

Akufo-Addo, a former foreign minister, has focused on Ghana's economic woes as a campaign theme, and has repeatedly accused Mahama and the NDC of incompetence.

Let's allow EC to carry out its constitutional mandate. We'll make Ghana proud no matter outcome. — John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) December 9, 2016

Akufo-Addo's statement was the first by a major party leader since the election and reflects opposition belief that after eight years in the wilderness it has won back power.

However, it also appeared aimed at tempering NPP members' earlier claims of an insurmountable lead for Akufo-Addo and calls for Mahama to concede defeat.

READ MORE: Ghanaian voices on coming presidential elections

"The NPP has done everything to try to bastardise the 2016 general election. We are doing our analysis and President Mahama is leading Akufo-Addo," Koku Anyidoho, a senior NDC official, told a news conference.

Privately, senior aides to Mahama say he remains confident.

Joy FM, a private radio station, put Akufo-Addo at 51.42 percent and Mahama at 46.72 percent with 176 of 275 constituencies counted.

Website GhanaWeb gave results for 160 constituencies and said Akufo-Addo had 55.8 percent with Mahama on 42.5 percent. Minor candidates took the other votes.

Seven candidates are contesting Ghana's presidency. If no one wins a majority, there will be a runoff between the top two.

The election has tested the Ghana Electoral Commission and its new Commissioner, Charlotte Osei. Observers reported almost no major problems on election day but the NPP and the National Peace Council on Thursday urged the commission to start releasing results quickly.

Osei told a news conference that the commission had collated results from 90 constituencies and would release them, though she gave no timeframe. She said technical problems had delayed other results.

"We want to assure you that we cannot change the results in any way. We cannot manipulate those results," she said.</s>The Electoral Commission (EC), has declared the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, the winner of the 2016 elections.

The NPP Flagbearer finally secured the presidency after a third time, beating the incumbent, President John Mahama with 53.85 percent of valid votes cast.

Nana Akufo-Addo rode on the back of the valid votes cast to become Ghana’s fifth president under the fourth Republic.

President Mahama, who ran on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), secured 44.40 of valid votes cast.

President Mahama's defeat makes him the first incumbent to lose an election since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992.

The NPP Flagbearer had already acknowledged the concession of five of six other contenders some 48 hours to the official declaration of results by the EC.

The candidates of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward Mahama, the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom and the independent candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah, all called him to concede the election.

These five candidates all secured 1.76 percent of votes cast.

15, 712, 499 persons were registered to vote in this election across 28, 992 polling stations across the 275 constituencies. Figures from the EC indicate that the election saw a turnout of

He is the second candidate to have won the presidency after contesting for the third time. The late President John Atta Mills also won the seat on the third ask.

Nana Akufo-Addo comes from a rich political heritage with three of the iconic Big Six, the founding fathers of Ghana, being his relatives.

They were J. B. Danquah, his grand-uncle; William Ofori-Atta, his uncle and Edward Akufo-Addo, the third Chief Justice of Ghana and later the ceremonial President of the Republic from 1969 to 1972 as his father.

Nana Akufo-Addo himself, aged 72, has already served Ghana as the Attorney General and then as Foreign Minister in the John Kufuor-led NPP government from 2000 to 2008.

Unlike the 2012 election campaign where the Nana Akufo-Addo and his party campaigned on a platform of educational reform with the free SHS promise, the Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign for the presidency was on the back of a promise address unemployment and job creation with the NPP’s 2016 manifesto themed “Change: An agenda for jobs”.</s>LENI Robredo is making a scene. She is accusing the President and Bongbong Marcos of plotting to steal the vice presidency from her.

She is saying this after she was constructively dismissed from the Cabinet. She resigned after being told

 through text, upon instructions of the President, to desist from attending Cabinet meetings.

There are several angles being floated around on the real reason of her departure from the Cabinet.

There are those who say she was dismissed for being a non-performer. Others point out the irreconcilable differences that she had with the President and her very vocal opposition to his stand on many issues, including the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the war on drugs, the President’s attack on Senator Leila de Lima, and the planned restoration of the death penalty.

Yet, there are also those who floated the intrigue that she was leaking confidential information discussed during Cabinet meetings, and that she refused to cooperate in the investigation of the Yolanda housing anomalies.

 But the most eyebrow-raising is her allegation that there are attempts to steal the vice presidency from her.

She is presenting herself as being the object of political harassment, a target of a sinister plot to oust her as Vice President and replace her with Bongbong Marcos. Her supporters and partymates at the Liberal Party are quick to deploy as a battle cry the hashtag #ProtectLeni and #DefendDemocracy, even as they once again paint the return of the Marcoses to power as the convenient bogeyman.

But it is perhaps important for us to ask Leni Robredo this question: How exactly do you steal the vice presidency?

To allege stealing a position presupposes that it will be through extra-constitutional means.

However, it could never be by a coup, since such usually targets the head of state or government, and not his spare tire. In fact, it is even more plausible for a Vice President from the opposition ranks like Mrs. Robredo, to be the one to plot and steal the presidency, and not the other way around.

The only way Mrs. Robredo can lose her seat is through constitutional means.

She can be unseated through impeachment. However, as of now, there is no ground to impeach her considering that a less than stellar performance at the HUDCC is not an impeachable offense. Her political difference with the President, as long as only expressed but not used to undermine him, does not constitute betrayal of public trust or treason.

She could however lose her seat through an electoral protest.

Bongbong Marcos has filed an electoral protest against her, and the case is now with the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, or PET. Marcos has alleged massive electoral fraud during the May 2016 elections, where he claimed to have been a victim of a combination of electronic and conventional forms of cheating.

Marcos alleges that the existence of the illegal fourth server, which was admitted even by Smartmatic, together with traditional methods of pre-shading of ballots that allegedly happened in many areas in the ARMM, may have enabled Mrs. Robredo to steal his votes from him.

Evidence suggests statistically improbable zero-votes for all other candidates except for the Liberal Party tandem of Roxas and Robredo in many areas in the country, particularly in the ARMM. There was also a suspiciously high level of under-votes for vice president, leading one to suspect a more sinister electronic tampering of results.

But all of these are allegations that still need to be proven in a proper proceeding. The camp of Bongbong Marcos has already submitted thousands of pages of evidence to back his allegations, and these have yet to be appreciated by the PET. A recount has not yet been ordered, and when commenced, would take a long time in a proceeding which will be open to all parties, and where Mrs. Robredo’s lawyers would be present.

Thus, it is totally irresponsible for Mrs. Robredo to accuse President Duterte, or his allies, working with Bongbong Marcos, to steal the vice presidency. Raising this amounts to a frontal attack on the PET, as it would impugn the integrity of its members, and the whole process.

The camp of Mrs. Robredo has already floated irresponsible allegations in social media. Several days ago, Robredo partisans already made accusations that Governor Imee Marcos had a meeting with two unidentified Supreme Court justices abroad.

Mrs. Robredo has to be reminded that being unseated through an electoral protest is not stealing. On the contrary, it makes her the thief of a post that is not supposed to be hers.

She has to realize that the best way to defend democracy is to stop undermining it by casting aspersions on democratic institutions and processes, and for her to support the recount. Only a recount would tell us if the vice presidency is rightfully hers, or was indeed stolen, not by Bongbong Marcos, but by her.
Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo wins the presidency.