Results of today’s parliamentary and presidential elections in Ghana are expected at the earliest by Sunday. (BTW, in areas where “the biometric verification machines did not work” voting has been extended till tomorrow.) Once you’ve checked out our elections preview (yes, our Dennis Laumann predicts incumbent President John Dramini Dramani Mahama will win a tight election), keep up with the elections through this bunch of sources: Al Jazeera English; the BBC (check out their Ghana elections FAQ); the crowdsourced (Ushahidi-clone) Ghana Votes 2012, which provides raw reports from polling stations; and the consortium of bloggers at Ghana Decides (though their site can take a while to load; they’re also posting videos on YouTube). Someone even created an exit poll on Google docs. If this is all too much work, just follow the #GhanaDecides hashtag on Twitter or befriend a Ghanaian on Facebook. Oh, and we have a playlist of fifteen songs (link below) to keep you occupied while waiting for the result.

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Further Reading

Fuel’s errand

When Africa’s richest man announced the construction of the continent’s largest crude oil refinery, many were hopeful. But Aliko Dangote has not saved Nigeria. The Nigerian Scam returns to the Africa Is a Country Podcast to explain why.

Fragile state

Without an immediate change in approach, Somalia will remain a fragmented country populated by self-serving elites seeking foreign patrons.

Coming home

In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.

Imaginary homelands

A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.

Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.