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Confusion Rocks Ashaiman Vote Transfer Exercise

By CitiFMonline
Politics Confusion Rocks Ashaiman Vote Transfer Exercise
SEP 29, 2016 LISTEN

Some angry residents in the Ashaiman constituency are pointing accusing fingers at the Returning officer of the Electoral Commission in the area for deliberately denying them the opportunity to  transfer their votes.

The angry residents on Wednesday afternoon expressed their anger  at the Ashaiman main office of the commission over the conduct of the Returning officer.

The residents, numbering over 50, had to verbally assault the EC officials for slowing the process.

At the time Citi News got to the scene around 2:00pm, some of the aggrieved residents were gearing up to engage the EC officials in a brawl.

It took the timely intervention of a police patrol team to calm the situation.

Speaking to Citi News, some of the residents who had gone to get the EC office at Ashaiman Lebanon to get their votes transferred said they had to literally beg the officers on duty to take them through the process successfully.

According to some of them, they have had to go to the Electoral Commission office on daily basis since Monday until Wednesday, but they have not been able to transfer their votes.

“Since Monday, I have been frequenting this office just to get my votes transferred but nothing is being done for me. Each time the EC official keeps giving excuses that I should bring this document or the other and if I bring it, he still finds fault and I have been going up and down and my transfer has not been effected” An angry old lady fumed.

Another angry resident noted that “When the EC officials come; they only issue out a few forms to the people and deliberately delay the process. As we speak, not more than 20 people have been served today yet they are already complaining of shortage of transfer forms.”

They accused the Returning officer, one Mr. Reynolds, for deliberately sabotaging the process to disenfranchise them in December.

“This is a clear sabotage; Mr Reynolds is sabotaging us so that we would not be able to vote for our preferred party in December. This morning when he came; he only signed 30 transfer forms and left and this has been his lifestyle since the beginning of the exercise. The earliest he is called to order the better” they cautioned.

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According to sources, the Ashaiman EC office has since the beginning of the process only managed to complete up to 500 transfers in the constituency.

When contacted, an official of the EC, who failed to give his name, confirmed that the exercise has been slow but denied that it was deliberate.

“My Returning officer is gone for training at Amasaman so before leaving in the morning, he signed a few forms to be used; but unfortunately we are almost short of forms so we would have to reschedule the people for tomorrow [Thursday].”

He also confirmed that, so far about 500 people are those whose transfers have been processed successfully.

Votes Transfer challenges
In other parts of the country, the exercise to transfer votes has been marred by violence largely by followers of the two main parties, the NDC and the NPP.

Both parties have in those instances, accused each other of scheming the process. At Kukuom     in Asunafo South Constituency of the Brong Ahafo Region for instance, the EC has suspended the exercise.

Follow the hashtag #GhElections on Social Media for election related stories.


By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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