I wish I was a polling agent – Rawlings

Former President Jerry John Rawlings on Sunday voted at exactly 0957 hours at the Public Works Department (PWD) Castle Branch polling station in the Korle-Klottey constituency.

After voting, he told journalists that he wished he was a polling agent for his party, like his wife Nana Konadu, so that he would keep a close eye on the process in a particular constituency instead of moving around.

The former President was mobbed on his arrival at the polling station accompanied by his son, Kimathi, and voting came to a halt because potential voters ran out of the queue to cheer him, shouting “welcome daddy” in the Ga language.

The former President Rawlings asked permission from those in the queue to allow him to vote before them and also called four elderly persons in the queue to vote before him.

He was the 165th person to vote. He left the polling station at exactly 1025 hours and did not say where he was going after voting.

Former President Rawlings told journalists that he was glad about media reports that some people allowed elderly persons to vote without joining the long queues, saying that, “that is a sign that there is hope for this country”.

He urged voters to remain calm but vigilant and use the legal means to check any fraud, adding that if the situation went beyond what was manageable, the Electoral Commission (EC) would have to get fresh ballot papers to affected constituencies and grant the voters extra time to cast their ballots.

At the PWD Castle branch polling station, the Presiding Officer, Mr. Richard Mingle told the GNA that 1,103 persons were expected to cast their vote.

View All

He said voting materials arrived after 0700 hours and voting started at 0720 hours, adding that, the voting materials arrived short of Absent Voters' List and the Enumerations Forms. “So we are depending on the list with the political parties polling agents to do our cross-checking when people arrive with ID cards and their names are not in the voters register,” he said.