ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — International observers endorsed Ghana's presidential and parliamentary polls despite delays at polling stations that pushed voting into a second day Saturday.

"All of Africa was looking at Ghana to make sure that they live up to their reputation and their name of being a mature democracy," said Ahmed Issak Hassan, head of an observer mission from the South Africa-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa. "I think so far the people of Ghana, the political leadership have lived up to that expectation.

"The people of Ghana and the leadership need to be commended," he said in a preliminary assessment of the election, which was still underway Saturday afternoon. Hassan is also the chairman of Kenya's electoral commission.

Polls show that a very tight race with voters almost evenly split between President John Dramani Mahama and his main challenger, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Final results are supposed to be announced within 72 hours of the end of voting according to Ghanaian law, although some constituencies have already declared who won in their precincts.

On Friday ballot materials arrived hours late to polling stations and many of the biometric voter verification machines broke down, causing long delays. At a polling station in Tesano, in northern Accra, voters said they waited in line all day Friday, only to return home because the biometric machine could not identify voters. They came back Saturday morning to try again.

"Yesterday I was here around 4 a.m. to vote. It was only in the evening they told us the computer is faulty," said George Anane, 33, a gospel musician, on Saturday. "But I came back today at 4 a.m. I am disappointed the machine did not work, but we are OK."

Ghana's Electoral Commission called on voters to be patient, as this year's presidential and parliamentary polls is the first time Ghana has used the biometric technology.

"Of course there were challenges, of course there were logistical problems," Hassan said. "An election is the biggest logistical event in any country. And so you will expect to have some challenges here and there, but these were not by design and I think the (electoral) commission has come forth and tried to rectify the problem.

Electoral chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said no incidents of fraud or violence have been confirmed. Yet rumors of misconduct have been rife.

Police fired water cannons and tear gas on hundreds of opposition party supporters Saturday who were protesting outside a building in northern Accra where they suspected ballots from the presidential and parliamentary election were being counted by a private company.

"They had some young supporters of political parties demanding to know what was going on in a particular house," said Ghana police spokesman Arthur Cephas. "Police came in to restore order. We brought all our management to get youth off the facility, to calm them down."

An AP reporter at the scene heard warning shots fired by police at the crowd.

Cephas said no one was arrested and there were no injuries. Continued...