Politics Voting Progress 5 Kwashieman

At the Kwashieman Christ Mission A and B polling centres in the Ablekuma North Constituency, voting materials arrived five minutes late.

However, voters who were seated on plastic chairs waited patiently until the Electoral Officers and Police personnel arrived with the materials.

Mr. Amoako Attah Presiding Officer for Christ Mission B centre immediately distributed the voting materials among the personnel as soon as the materials arrived but some of the voters angrily shouted, "You are late, we want to vote early".

At the Kwashieman Anglican J.S.S., Mr. Elliot Class-Peters, the Presiding Officer told the GNA that voting started at 0750 hours. According to him, their voting materials arrived at 0730 hours.

He said the complaints he had received were voters who could not identifying where to cast their votes because they did not check during the voter's exhibition exercise.

At the Blue Lagoon Hotel centre at Sakaman, Mr. Patrick Acheampong told the GNA that voting started at 0710 hours. He said the only problem at the station was a female voter who had a male photograph against her name in the register. She was allowed to vote because her voter's identification card carried the correct information. Forty people had so far voted at the time of the visit.

At the Bethel Baptist Church Centre, Mr. Isaac Oppong, the Presiding Officer pointed out that one of his polling assistants was absent.

According to him, only the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had their party representatives at the centre.

“The independent candidate, the Convention People's Party (CPP) and the People's National Convention (PNC)'s representatives were absent". Although there was a queue, the Electoral Officers had arranged chairs for the voters to sit and wait for their turn.

Two European Union (EU) observers were present with four policemen at the centre.

In Tamale, voting began peacefully with voters queuing as early as 0530 hours and started at 0730 hours.

Mr. Husseini Bawa, the Presiding Officer, and the polling assistants had to convey election materials from the Regional Electoral Office on bicycle since there was no vehicle to bring the materials to the polling station.

He said the polling centre had 677 voters with seven transferred votes while there were no proxy votes.

The NDC, NPP and DPP had their polling agents at post to monitor the elections.

At the Presbyterian Senior High School (SHS) Polling Station at Kukuo, also in the same constituency, voting started at 0700 hours.

Mr. Shaibu Sulemana, the Presiding Officer, said the centre had a voter population of 1,068 and that the NDC, NPP, PNC, CPP and DFP had their agents at the station.

At the A.M. E. Zion Junior High School (JHS) polling station voting started at 0808 hours because there were little skirmishes among the voters and they had to be arranged properly in the queue to ensure smooth voting.

Mr. Mahama Janda Tanko, the Presiding officer, said the centre had 1,691 people on the register.

Voting started at 0700 hours with the polling agents of the NPP, NDC, DFP, CPP, and the PNC at post.

At the OLA Junior High School polling station, out of a registered voter population of 1,626 voters, 76 had cast their votes as at 0815 hours, while the station also had six transferred votes and three proxy votes.

At the Lamashegu primary “B” polling station Mr. Addai Ember the Presiding officer said there were 1,231 registered voters and voting started at 0700 hours, while at nearby Lamashegu Primary “A” polling station voting started 0735 hours. There were 1,293 voters on the register.

At the Dapokpa Junior High School, a 75-year-old blind man had difficulty in casting his vote even though he had been provided with voting material.

This held up voting for some minutes while the polling agents consulted with the Presiding Officer as to how to help him to vote.

Eventually it was agreed that the blind man's son could vote in his father's stead as requested by the father.

When the GNA visited the Tamale Central Constituency, there was an impressive voter turn-out at most of the polling stations.

At the United Primary “A” and “B” Polling Stations, voters had lined up as early as 0500 hours.

The incumbent MP for the constituency, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini who cast his vote at Tishigu, expressed satisfaction about the conduct of the polls so far and said he was hopeful that the election would be peaceful. An Election Observer from the Pan African Parliament in South Africa also expressed satisfaction with the turn-out, as well as the conduct and the process of the election.