General News of Friday, 7 December 2012

Source: GNA

Voting ends in Ayawaso East and North with some challenges

Voting has ended in Ayawaso East and North constituencies in the Greater Accra Region with pockets of challenges in some polling stations due to break down of verification machines.

Verification machines at the Nima Highway Nursery A and B in the Ayawaso East Constituency broke down around 1500 hours according to the Presiding Officers and that halted the process.

According to Dora Boadiwaa, Presiding Officer at the Nima Highway Nursery Poling Station A, out of the 622 registered voters, only 425 had voted by the time the machine broke down.

She said they had reported the case to the district office of the EC and they were assured of a replacement, which never materialized.

Steven Kabutey Senakey, Presiding Officer at the Highway Nursery Polling Center B, noted that 406 registered voters, out of 620, had completed the process as at the time the machine broke down.

At the Osikani Video Center in the Ayawaso North Constituency, voting continued two hours after 1700 hours and the Election Officials told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that it was due to the slow nature of the process.

Inquiries made by the GNA revealed that there were over 800 voters at the center with only one verification machine.

There were indications that voting could run late into the night since there were many registered voters in the queue waiting to have their turn.

However, most of the polling stations visited saw a generally smooth exercise as counting was in process with people waiting anxiously for the results.