Cape Coast, Dec. 28, GNA - Voters in 149 out of the 572 electoral area= s in the Central Region will not participate in the District Level Elections because their ballot papers were not ready as at Tuesday morning when the exercise started in many areas in the region. Mr. Samuel Tettey, Regional Electoral Officer, told the GNA that the ballot papers for the affected electoral areas spread across all the 17 districts of the region had not been printed.

He said the ballot papers might be ready by Thursday to enable voters in those areas to exercise their franchise. Mr. Anthony Nyame, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Electoral Officer, sai= d only nine out of the 45 electoral areas in Cape Coast were affected adding that his office was waiting for head office to announce a new date for the areas involved. The general atmosphere at the various polling stations was calm as voters trickled in to cast their votes.

At Elmina, out of the 2,034 registered voters at two polling stations= , 307 had cast their votes as at 1120 hrs at the Neizer's Gardens 93A" a= nd 93B". Ms. Gifty Koomson and Mr. Paddy Mensah, presiding officers told the GN= A that so far they had not had any problem. At Jukwa near Cape Coast, the ballot papers arrived around 1105 hrs and immediately, the officers in charges started the exercise.