Many shops and drinking bars in the Cape Coast Municipality still remain closed after several hours into the 2012 voting exercise which started at 0700 hours on Friday at all the polling stations.

The major and busy streets in the area have also recorded less traffic with few commercial vehicles on the roads.

Most people were seen sitting in groups either watching proceedings on Television sets or listening to radio while others were chatting and waiting for the voting to end at 1700 hours.

As at 1540 hours, majority of the polling stations visited by the Ghana News Agency had virtually no queues at all with polling station officials taking a rest and waiting to close the polls at 1700 hours.

Mr Dominic Maalo, a resident of Ayiko-Ayiko, a suburb of Cape Coast, who was among the early voters, expressed his satisfaction about the whole process and said the use of the verification machine had made the voting process very easy and comfortable for all eligible voters.

He was hopeful that people would exercise patience during the counting of the ballots to avoid any disturbances.