Ghana election diary I: The line-up

The BBC's Kwaku Sakyi-Addo is keeping a diary as Ghana prepares for presidential polls on 7 December. Here he takes a looks at those in the race for the top job.

Kwaku joins the campaign trail

The Electoral Commission's (EC) starting gun has been fired, after certifying the candidacies of four presidential hopefuls, the gloves and running shoes are off. It's all bare-knuckle and barefoot now.

In the rough terrain of election politics, it's sensible to hit the road light.

The main contenders are President John Kufuor, 65, of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and John Atta Mills, 60, of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a former vice-president.

For a man submitting a job application, President Kufuor seemed rather relaxed last Friday when he turned up at the EC headquarters in the capital, Accra to file his candidacy.

He was a little sweaty though from his campaign walkabout in the slum suburb of Nima.

His handlers believe he just has to keep walking about to win the election.

Perhaps.

Stickler for time

But it was Mr Mills who had his candidacy certified first. He had announced he would be at the EC headquarters at 1030, and he was there dead on time.

Two excluded candidates took with them the campaign's best prospects of humour

He's a stickler for time.

His campaign is still trying to manage without his running mate, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni.

The 55-year-old MP and lawyer suffered broken limbs in a road accident days after he was named to the ticket.

They're counting on sympathy votes when he shows up on the campaign trail in bandages in a fortnight or so.

I suspect that even politics is slightly more complicated than that.

Fiery speaker

And then there are the others, Edward Mahama of the People's National Convention (PNC), and George Aggudey of the Convention People's Party (CPP), who are hoping for a run-off between the big boys so that they can horse-trade with their single-digit slice of the vote.

Mr Mahama, a 55-year-old Chicago-trained medical doctor, has run for the presidency twice previously, winning around 3% each time.

President Kufuor is known at the 'Gentle Giant'

He tends to do well in the northern parts of the country.

He's a fiery and engaging speaker, but these days his message is faint; it's all buried in populist static and atmospherics.

Mr Aggudey, lawyer and businessman, has the most difficult task.

He has Ghana's founding father, Kwame Nkrumah's shoes to fill. The CPP is the great man's party.

Sadly, apart from a large forehead, Mr Aggudey and Nkrumah don't have a great deal in common.

Even with a more appealing candidate four years ago, the CPP won less than 2% of the ballot. That leaves enough room for further decline this year.

Flip-flops

The EC refused to accept the application of T N Ward-Brew, the maverick leader of the Democratic People's Party (DPP) and NDC ally in previous elections.

Mr Mills is thought to be more popular in Ghana's rural areas

Mr Ward-Brew is a lawyer with the bearded countenance of Karl Marx but not with the socialist godfather's gravitas or discipline.

He was hours behind the EC's application deadline.

His prospective running mate was a man in a safari suit and flip-flops.

With the disqualification of the curious pair, the 2004 election may have lost any serious prospects of humour.