Voting extended to Saturday for “disappointed electorate”

The Electoral Commission may give a window of opportunity to electorate who did not get the opportunity to cast their ballots on Friday due to technical challenges.

This is according the leader of the ECOWAS observer mission, Olusegun Obasanjo who is a former President of Nigerian.

The EC initially insisted that no one will be allowed to vote unless they are cleared by the biometric device.

As a result, several voters were turned away after the biometric machine failed to identify them while others could also not vote because the biometric machine broke down at most centres.

Joy News' Eric Ahianyo reported that Obasanjo said he had spoken to Dr. Afari Gyan who has agrred to extend voting to Saturday to enable those who could not vote on Friday to do so. Meanwhile Dr. Afari Gyan is expected to issue a statement to that effect.

President John Dramani Mahama was the first to ask the Electoral Commission to allow voters with valid Voter ID cards cast their votes even if the verification machine fails to recognize them.

He said it was unfair to disenfranchise some people because their identity cannot be verified by a piece of equipment.

Pro-NPP pressure group, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG)also called on the EC to reach an agreement with the principal stakeholders in the ongoing elections before results are finally declared, to ensure that all political parties accept the final results.

Meanwhile, Executive Director for Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey has described the move by President Obasanjo as uncalled for, saying his intervention was unnecessary.

Dr. Akwetey described the statement attributed to the leader of the Africa Union Observer Mission as “ a rushed one”, saying the foreign observer missions should be restrained from making certain pronouncements regarding the polls.

Story by Ghana/Myjoyonline.com/Jerry Tsatro Mordy