Even before December 7Ballot boxes go missing …in V/R, as police intensify

The Volta Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Ms. Lawrentia Kpatakpa, has expressed concern over the missing of two ballot boxes, a development, she said, posed a great worry to the officers of the Commission in the region.

She explained that the two missing ballot boxes were part of 48, which were being transported from the Regional Office in Ho, to Kpeve, in the South Dayi Constituency, but in the process of transporting the boxes, four fell from the EC pick-up truck, with registration GV 82 Y, between Sokode and Akrofu, all in the Ho Municipality.

Ms. Kpatakpa, who spoke to The Chronicle, however stated that the two missing boxes did not contain any electoral material, and emphasised that they were purely empty boxes.

According to her, the North Dayi District Director reported the incident to her (Regional Director), but later some good Samaritans brought two out of the four boxes, but the rest two were yet to be recovered.

The Volta Regional Director of the EC continued that information reaching the office later, indicated that a commercial vehicle, which plies the road to Hohoe, found the two boxes, but initially the driver did not bring the boxes to the office, hence a formal complaint being made to the police about the missing boxes.

Ms. Kpatakpa said even though the box contained no material, it was not safe for such an object to be in the possession of any individual, but was quick to say the EC had put in place mechanisms, that she described as very effective, and that no individual or groups of people could manipulate the electoral process.

She said when the incident was reported to the police, some of the police officers said her outfit should have requested for police escort.

She, however, said that decision never occurred to her, because the boxes contained no election materials.

Kpata expressed satisfaction over the level of preparations towards the election in the Volta Region, and pointed out that, so far, electoral materials for the parliamentary elections had been distributed to all the districts, and that the commission would soon receive the materials for the presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Bernard Dery, has assured the electorate that the necessary security measures had been put in place, saying the police were on high alert to avert any threat to the electoral process, and asked the public to remain calm over the missing empty ballot boxes.

He said the police had intensified their investigations, and would soon retrieve the missing boxes.

DCOP Derry, who looked confident about the security network in the region, emphasised that there was no way anybody could infiltrate the security in the region, adding that election taskforce had been set up in all the 18 districts of the region. The Volta Regional Police Commander said in the case of the missing ballot boxes, the police would soon retrieve them, because the various District Police commands would intensify their investigations, with the assistance of the Special Police Task Force.