Security agents on Sunday arrested the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman for Tema East Constituency Alhaji Mustapha Darko, alias “Iddi Salaam”, at a polling station at Ashaiman for allegedly conspiring with unnamed persons to snatch boxes of ballot papers from the Redemption Valley Polling Station at Tema Community Nine.

Personnel of the Buffalo Unit of the Police Service arrested the NDC constituency chairman after security agents were informed that he and his alleged accomplices, who were reportedly seen behind a wall at the polling station, were at the point of carrying out the plot.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the NDC Co-ordinator for Tema East, Mr Isaac Boah, confirmed the constituency chairman's arrest and said the constituency party chairman's pick-up was seized by the police during the arrest.

When the Daily Graphic called the Tema Regional Police Commander, Mr John Kudalor, for details, he was attending an urgent security meeting of his command.

A contingent of military and police personnel also raided the Queens Hotel at Ashaiman at noon on Sunday, after receiving reports that two men riding on a motor bike had seized a box of thumb printed ballot papers from the Ashaiman Advanced Technician Institute Polling Station and barricaded themselves and the box in a room at the hotel.

The armed security personnel, however, found no evidence of the alleged bandits and the ballot box after searching the rooms at the hotel. 

In the aftermath of the two incidents, a mob hurling stones and other missiles went on the rampage and attacked security personnel, injuring several policemen and destroying a vehicle belonging to the regional police commander.

A contingent of military personnel from Michel Camp helped to quell the mob violence.

Those incidents, an  atmosphere of unusual quiet and calm, shorter queues and virtually deserted streets characterised the presidential run-off in the Tema Metropolis, the Ashaiman Municipality and their suburbs.

A Daily Graphic tour of more than 10 polling stations in the Tema East and West constituencies and Ashaiman, revealed an apparently lower voter turn out than during the first round held on December 7. Most of the centres were visited between 7.30 a.m and 12 noon and the electoral officers said there was the possibility of a higher turnout of voters as the exercise progressed.

At the Presbyterian Church of Ghana Redemption Congress Polling Station at Tema Community Nine, there were less than 60 people waiting to vote in the when the Daily Graphic visited the station around 10 a.m.

There had been very long and winding queues at the polling station during the first round election on December 7, 2008.

There were three voting screens at the Redemption Valley Polling Station at Tema Community Nine, where there were large crowds of voters on December 7, making voting very smooth. There were no queues at the station and voters arrived, voted in a matter of minutes and left.

At the Chemu Secondary School Polling Station at Tema Community Four, where there was a long queue for most part of the day on December 7, only about 20 people, all of them comfortably seated on chairs, were waiting to vote.

At the VALCO Area Polling Station, also at Community Four and which registered a very high turn out on December 7, the Daily Graphic counted only 16 voters in the queue.

The provision of four voting screens at the Holy Child Nursery School Polling Station at the Sakumono Estates, near Tema, made voter queues much shorter and voting faster than on December 7.

The atmosphere at the Sakumono Primary School Polling Station at the Sakumono Village was orderly and peaceful and the voter queue much shorter than on December 7.

There was only a handful of voters waiting quietly to vote when the Daily Graphic visited the Parakuo Estates, near Sakumono. Polling agents at the station attributed the calm atmosphere this time to the absence of many people who, after voting at the station in the December 7 election, hovered around it and created an atmosphere of unnecessary tension.

The general voter turnout and atmosphere were the same at other polling stations the Daily Graphic visited in Tema Communities One, Two, Three, Tema New Town and Manhean.

The route from the Nungua Barrier through the Beach Road all the way to Tema, which normally has high volumes of motor traffic bound to and from the Tema Port and Tema Industrial Area even at weekends, was virtually deserted.

 
At Ashaiman High School Polling Station, Rose Hayford Darko reports that there was a stampede  which started  immediately voting materials arrived at about 5 a.m.

 
Story by George Sydney Abugri & Rose Hayford Darko
 
Source: Daily Graphic - Daily Graphic