The Special Voting exercise, the official curtain raiser for the general elections in Ghana, was held across fourteen of the sixteen administrative regions of the country on Monday, December 2, 2024.

The Special Voting exercise, which is reserved for eligible voters involved in election-related duties, including election officials, security personnel, and media practitioners, took place in 275 polling centres in the fourteen regions.

A breakdown of the data provided by the Electoral Commission shows that the Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions had the highest number of polling stations – 52 each.

With a total of 36 polling stations, the Central Region was in second place, with the Volta Region having 22 polling centres.

The Ahafo Region had seven polling stations, the Bono Region 14, Bono East 14, Central Region 31, North East Region eight (8), Northern Region with 19, Oti Region with nine (9), Savannah Region also had nine, Upper East Region had 16, Upper West Region had 13, while Western North Region has nine (9).

The Western Region, which has 17 voting stations, and the Eastern Region, with 36, had their exercises moved to December 5, 2024, due to the defacement of some ballot sheets, as announced by the Electoral Commission.

Incident-free exercise

Despite pockets of issues here and there, particularly in the Greater Accra Region, the exercise was largely successful, with no major casualties or violence recorded across the country.

While there might have been a few delays at some polling stations, the entire process can be said to have been fairly smooth across the country.



Issues of missing voter names

There were, however, quite a few reports, particularly in the Greater Accra Region, where some security officials reported that their names were missing from the register despite receiving notifications of confirmation of their names being included in the register at their respective polling stations.

One such person is a police officer named Charles Anamobila, who travelled from Kumasi to Accra to partake in the event only to be told that his name was not on the list.

Ayawaso West Wuogon living up to expectations, literally

The battle between Lydia Seyram Alhassan of the New Patriotic Party and John Dumelo of the National Democratic Congress at the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency was billed to be one of the hottest in the 2024 elections, and the Special Voting exercise gave indications that the predictions were not far from right.

From staying close to each other at the polling centre, to issuing cautions to each candidate when the race kicked off, one can only assume the extent to which things will spiral come December 7.

John Dumelo promised to give Lydia Alhassan, the incumbent MP, a showdown after she allegedly supplied food to voters, in what John Dumelo viewed to be an act of voter inducement.

Lydia Seyram Alhassan fired back with a cry of innocence, claiming that her opponent was seeking to tarnish her image.



OSP investigating Lydia Alhassan

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has initiated investigations into allegations of food distribution by Lydia Alhassan, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon, during the Special Voting exercise held at the Legon Police Station on December 2, 2024, according to a citinewsroom.com report.

Videos of the NPP parliamentary candidate and her assigns distributing food and water to voters were well reported by the media, courting the attention of the Special Prosecutor, who had earlier issued a statement that it was going to follow the process and station officers at polling centres to fish out possible cases of inducements.



Kozie’s allegations

Another major story from the exercise on Monday was the allegation by the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Adentan, Akosua Manu, alias Kozie, that supporters of the NDC attacked her driver.

Kozie, in various media interviews, stated that some persons assaulted her driver and inflicted injuries on him.

Ghana ready for December 5 and 7

On the back of the success of the Special Voting exercise, there is genuine belief and confidence that the country will go to the polls on December 7 and come out with a united front regardless of the winner.



EK/AE