Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has cancelled a referendum on changing the rules around local government elections less than three weeks before the vote was intended to take place.

Currently candidates stand as individuals and it is against the rules for them to be backed by political parties.

The referendum had been set for 17 December and was to decide whether that rule would be scrapped, allowing parties to openly back their candidates.

But in a televised presidential address on Sunday the president said he was cancelling the referendum as there was a lack of consensus between the ruling and the opposition parties.

He called it a "matter of major importance":

Observers say that, while parties are not allowed to support candidates, in reality they do.