Voters register in Mbrom missing

Voting at the Mbrom polling centre in the Manhyia South Constituency is likely to be deferred since the voters’ register for the area is missing.

Three hours after balloting started, the electoral roll for the centre, cannot be traced.

Mr Isaac Owusu, Deputy Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), confirmed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

He said they received information from the Electoral Officer about the mix-up of some registers in the constituency last night and quickly sent a vehicle to Accra to get new ones printed.

Unfortunately, this did not include that of the Mbrom Centre. They had also not yet succeeded in bringing the development to the notice of the EC’s Information Technology (IT).

Mr Owusu said under the circumstance, he did not envisage the possibility of voters there casting their ballot today.

Responding to reports that some of the verification materials were not working he gave the assurance that trained technicians were ready to fix any problems. Meanwhile, voting had been going on smoothly and peacefully across the 47 constituencies in the Ashanti Region.

Voters in long queues could be seen calmly waiting for their turns to cast their vote under the close watch of the political party agents.

In many of the centres visited, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were the only parties that had their agents present.

Mr Mathew Fordjour, Presiding Officer at the Queens Hospital polling centre, Atonsu-Dompoase in the Asokwa West, told the GNA, the aged, in most occasions had to be assisted.

As of 0756 hours, 52 out of the 874 registered voters had voted and they included Joel Wiredu and Michael Gyekye, both first time voters, who claimed to have arrived at the centre at midnight.

At Juaso in the Asante-Akim South Constituency, 167 voters out of 1,800 voters had exercised their franchise in three centres, within the first hour of voting.

In the Obuasi West, 113 voters in four polling centres had voted as of 0750 hours.

A total of 2,533 people are expected to vote in the four centres.