Most presiding officers and polling assistants failed to turn up at their various polling stations in the Odododiodoo constituency on Thursday, delaying the start of voting.
The district electoral officer Mr Nat Quaye said family members and friends had warned the election officials that there would be violence during the voting.
Some polling stations at the Ayalolo 6 and 8 Cluster of schools were unable to open on time because they were awaiting replacements from the district office, said Mr Quaye.
He said, “due to the persistent media reports of possible violence, one boy told me that his father said he did not seek permission from him to be trained as polling assistant so he shouldn’t go.”
To assist polling centres without sufficient manpower, Mr Quaye said he has despatched a team to fill in the vacancies.
Mr Quaye said some voters complained that the EC deliberately withheld polling assistants to delay voting. Fearful of violence from people waiting in the long queue, Mr Quaye said, ” I have asked the police district commander to despatch police personnel to the violence- prone area.”
Other problems facing the district electoral officer result from voters failing to cross-check their names during the exhibition exercise. “People have made mistakes and they want to blame the Electoral Commission”, Mr Quaye said.
“People are coming in with fictitious photo IDs and because of that don’t know which polling centre they are to vote at”, he said.” When you ask them where they registered they mention a centre which doesn’t tally with their IDs.”
He stated that some political parties, after receiving the number of voters in a particular area from the EC, registered new voters and issued them with voter IDs. He said, “Some political parties are creating problems for us, some are using deceased’s names and issuing cards. Because some of the deceased’s names have been removed these people turn up only to realise that those names are not in the register.”
