Politics Election Progress 9 Accra

But for a little mix-up at the Adenta Pharmacy polling station where a voters' register meant for Dome-Kwabenya was erroneously exchanged for one meant for the station, voting at the Adenta Constituency was orderly and smooth.

Ms Victoria Addy, Presiding Officer, told GNA that though polls started on time, only one of the two voters' registers meant for the station was available.

Ms Addy said the second voters' register was identified as belonging to Dome-Kwabenya Constituency and so she quickly alerted Electoral Commission (EC) officials who rectified the error and brought in the second voters' register.

As a result, there was a little delay for those whose names were on that register, which had recorded only nine voters as against 136 in the first register as at 0835 hrs when GNA called at the centre.

Voting at the Adenta Municipal Assembly Polling Station was, however, smooth and orderly, with voters in long and tortuous but orderly queues patiently awaiting their turn.

Ms. Rose Quayson, Presiding Officer, told GNA all materials arrived well in advance by 0545 hours and voting therefore took off at 0700 hrs prompt.

As at 0733 hours when GNA called there, 138 out of a total of 1,614 registered voters had cast their vote.

Close by was another polling station where 56 out of a total of 1,491 registered voters had cast their vote.

Mr George Y. Asare, Presiding Officer, told GNA there were 75 voters on the voters' transfer list and 26 on the absentee voters' list.

Voting at the Nkwantanang DC Primary School Polling Centre was orderly and smooth as the two queues formed were short.

At one polling centre, 208 out of 1,414 registered voters had cast their vote while 216 out of 1,178 registered voters had cast their vote at the other centre, creating the impression that a lot more voters had not yet turned up.

At the St. Francis Primary School Polling Centre, there were four overly long queues to cater for the numerous voters who had thronged the centre.

As at 0900 hours, 215 out of the total number of 2,879 had cast their votes, according to Mr. Issahaku Abukari, one of the Presiding Officers for the centre.

Mr. Abukari said there were 22 transfers and 33 absentee voters at the centre, adding that, there had been no incident at the time of GNA's visit.

Mr. Ben Tettey, Presiding Officer at the same centre, said his register contained 2,190 voters out of which 140 had voted by 0915 when GNA called there.

He gave the number of voters on the voter transfer list as 28 and absent voters as 58.

Some polling assistants told GNA no provision had been made for food and water for them but Mr Tettey said they would be relieved by another batch of officials to enable them to take their meal.

Queues at the TMA Basic School in the Adenta Constituency were quite long and circuitous but voting was orderly and smooth.

The Presiding Officer, Mr Charles Mireku-Asante, had little time talking to GNA as he had to get personally involved in sorting out things for the electorate who had problems locating their names and polling centres as a result of transfers they had made.

GNA observed that some voters spent between 10 to 20 seconds in the booth thumb-printing their ballots and average of 30 seconds to one minute to receive their ballot papers and cast their votes.

At the Ajiringanor area and Shiashie areas in East Legon, there were virtually no queues at some of the centres and therefore voting was quite smooth and orderly.

Politics Soldiers Arrests
Election disrupted by arrests

Voting at Wli-Agorviefe and Wli-Afegame in the Hohoe-North Constituency got disrupted for three hours following the arrest of three men in relation to a domestic incident.

Eyewitnesses said soldiers stationed at the Ghana/Togo border at Wli had arrested Yaw Situ, 24, a farmer, for beating his wife.

Edem Sapaty, 34, a teacher, and Samuel Agor were also arrested for protesting and commenting on the arrest of Situ.

The arrest and alleged beating of the three by the soldiers drew the people from the polling stations and homes in the two communities to the streets in anger.

Eyewitnesses said youths of the two communities were marching towards the soldiers but were held back when warning shots were fired to keep them at bay.

The people blocked the Wli/Hohoe road to prevent the soldiers from taking they had arrested to Hohoe.

It took Togbe Osei II, Chief of Wli-Afegame, and his elders 45 minutes of discussions with the soldiers, Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) officials and the police to have those arrested released for the elections to resume.

Togbe Osei who spoke to the GNA urged the soldiers to take it easy with the people and for the people to also exercise restraint to ensure incident-free election.