ACCRA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The candidate of the largest opposition New Patriotic Party Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has won Ghana's closely contested presidential elections, official results released here Friday by the electoral commission showed.

Akufo-Addo garnered 5,716,026 votes, or 53.85 percent of the total valid votes cast, while his closest challenger, who is also the incumbent president John Dramani Mahama of the governing National Democratic Congress obtained 4,713,277 votes, or 44.40 percent.

The five other candidates who contested Wednesday's presidential election in Ghana collectively polled less than 2 percent of the total valid votes cast.