General News of Tuesday, 29 June 2004

Source: GNA

Upper Denkyira bye-election starts at slow pace

Dunkwa-On-Offin (C/R), June 29, GNA - Voting started on time but at a slow pace in the Upper Denkyira Constituency Bye-Election on Tuesday. At many of the polling centres GNA visited, voting was going on smoothly and the electoral officers said they had the full complement of materials.

There were no queues and the people trickled in.

At the Asikuma Catholic Primary School Centre, the Officer in charge, Mr Joseph Obeng said, even though, voting had been slow he was expecting that it would pick up during the course of the day. Three candidates are contesting the bye-election: - Madam Elizabeth Debrah, 40-year-old Teacher, is on the ticket of Democratic People's Party (DPP); Mr Benjamin Kofi Ayeh 42-year-old Accountant, for New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Mr Abdulai Issaku 34-year-old Businessman, an Independent Candidate.

The bye-election became necessary following the death of Mr Charles Omar Nyanor, the Member of Parliament for the area.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Dunkwa on the eve of the election, Central Regional Electoral Officer Mr Appiah Baffoe said all the electoral materials had been distributed to 10 zonal centres for distribution to the polling stations.

He said 65,540 voters were expected to cast their votes at 133 polling centres.