Accra, Dec. 28, GNA – Confusion amidst hecklings and trading of insults characterised voting at the Blogodo Polling Station in the Klottey Korley in the morning of voting over whether party agents, who failed to vote during the special voting day, should be allowed to do so on Sunday.
Two security officers, a police man and a fire service man at the centre could not control the situation, therefore, decided to stand by the ballot box to protect it from tamper. They later called for reinforcement later.
The incident happened when a National Democratic Congress (NDC) party agent came to cast his vote and his name could not be found in the Electoral Commission Voter Register at the polling centre. Angry voters in queue and those standing by observing the voting process, therefore, rushed towards the election officers’ tables creating the pandemonium. The officers said there was little they could do and that protecting the ballot box was of much importance to them.
Later, the agent was allowed to vote after one of the Election Officers had found his name in the NDC party agents’ list in the Constituency. But this happened only with the assistance of some people whose identities were not disclosed.
Few minutes after, Mr Kwadwo Sarfo-Kantanka, a Deputy Commission of the EC arrived at the scene and expressed shock why such a situation could result and said the agent could have been asked to go to his polling station to vote.
Explaining the situation, the Returning Officer, who was not willing to provide her name to the press, told Mr Sarfo-Kantanka that because all parties’ agents in the Klottey Korley could not vote during the special voting on December 23, an agreement was reached that they should be allowed to do so on Sunday. Mr Sarfo-Kantanka assured the press that the Regional Director of Elections would be contacted to find out what arrangements were made for the agents to vote since he was not privy to the issue.
Two other party agents of the New Patriotic Party and NDC told the Ghana News Agency that they were also denied voting at where they were supposed to be for the election, so they had come to the Blogodo Centre, their original polling stations to exercise their franchise. Calm has so far returned to the centre and voting is going with a stronger presence of security now in place.
Source: GhanaWeb
