Confusion Over Special Voting

Mrs. Mills-Robertson voting yesterday Voting at the Korley Klottey constituency in Accra came to a standstill at about 12 noon when the parliamentary candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nii Armah Ashitey raised objections to proceedings at the Osu Police Barracks polling centre.

Voting which started at about 7am yesterday, unlike the Nima Police Barracks polling centre, was characterized by lots of intimidation and confusion.

The Presiding Officer, Clement Adonae told DAILY GUIDE that shortly after voting started at the Osu Barracks, the opposition party agents objected to the procedure all parties had earlier accepted to adhere to.

The normal procedure should have been the polling agents cross-checking the names of the voters in the official register provided by the EC, but because the register was not a master one with names arranged in alphabetical order, it took almost thirty minutes to locate the name of a voter among the over three thousand names, making the process rather slow.

He revealed that when the EC's list of names was brought at about 9am, it was only one copy so voting had to stop for more copies to be run for the party agents.

Later, the parties accepted that once voters provided their ID cards, their names should be written and allowed to vote.

When voting resumed, most of the security persons could not fathom why they would not be allowed to cast their parliamentary vote, creating a misunderstanding between the EC officials and the security men. This brought the proceedings to a temporal halt.

The Presiding Officer explained that only voters who resided in that constituency would be allowed to vote in the parliamentary elections.

When calm returned, voting started briskly with voters writing their names and queuing to vote.

Whilst this process was till ongoing, the NDC candidate showed up at the venue and created a scene by halting proceedings.

For about an hour, no one was allowed to vote because attempts by even the District Police Officer, ASP Peter Yembilla to calm tempers proved futile until the Deputy Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mrs. Elizabeth Mills Robertson showed up to vote.   

Mr. Armah Ashitey and his escorts however insisted that the mode of casting the special votes was a recipe to rig the elections. He maintained that voting started without the list at all until they called for it; a situation he said was not the right thing to do.

The Convention People's Party (CPP) candidate, Ms. Monica Quarcopome also sided with her NDC counterpart to demand the use of the list but later said once the process was too slow, they should resort to the names writing.

However, the NPP's candidate, Nii Adjei Tawia explained that looking at the sacrifice security persons were making towards the success of the elections, it was only fair to allow them to vote on time to avoid disenfranchising them.

He was worried that arrangements were not done for special voters to vote in their constituencies in order to allow them partake in both the parliamentary as well as the presidential elections. As at 12 noon, only 256 voters out of the 3400 persons had cast their votes.

At Nima, voting was very peaceful. The Presiding Officer, Ernest Ametepey said voting started at 7am and about 600 voters were expected to exercise their franchise.

As at 10:40 am, 250 votes had been cast whilst others were waiting to exercise their franchise.

The Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Angwubutoge Awuni noted that all stations under his jurisdiction were calm. He expressed the hope that the same calmness would be replicated on Sunday, December 7 throughout the country.

The police boss sounded a strong warning to persons that have decided to disrupt the process, noting that the law would drastically deal with them.

“The police would meet them with commensurate force,” he maintained.

At the La Dadekotopon constituency, voting took off smoothly at some designated polling centres DAILY GUIDE visited.

At about 9:10 am when reporters got to the Burma Hall premises, a polling centre designated for the special voting in Burma Camp, 234 junior ranks and officers had cast their ballots.   

While one military man was disenfranchised because he presented a voter's identity card which was no longer in use, two other ladies were also disallowed to do proxy voting for their husbands.      

The atmosphere at the centre was very calm and quiet as the cemetery. Usual of the military, there was no fidgeting as all voters, both in civvies and military uniforms stood patiently in a long queue to exercise their franchise.

Meanwhile, DAILY GUIDE spotted the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Dade Kotopon Constituency, Nii Amasah Namoale, making frantic calls to his party hierarchy.

When approached, he furiously said he was protesting some three proxy votes simply because the EC had not provided a proxy list to officials at the centre.

In total, there were five proxy voters in the register but they could not vote as a result of the objections raised above.

Two polling agents each of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and NDC with just one from the camp of the Convention People's Party (CPP) were sighted going about their duties with microscopic eyes at the centre, leaving nothing to chance.

Also, two Election Observers from the Carter Centre - Maud Nyamungha and Mark Naftalin - were at the Burma Hall to observe proceedings.By Rocklyn Antonio & Nathaniel Y. Yankson