Regional News of Friday, 7 December 2012

Source: GNA

Voting delays at Anyaa sowutuom

Voting at the Rose of Sharon Preparatory School at Sowutuom under the Anyaa-Sowutoum Constituency started around 0850 hours as voting materials arrived late.

Officials and security personnel sending the materials to the centre could not locate the place on time and they had to be met on the way by the polling officials at the centre who directed them to the station.

Meanwhile anxious voters some of whom arrived at the centre as earlier as 2 am while others got there at 12 midnight and waited to cast their votes.

Mr Prince Adu-Quansah, the Presiding Officer, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the centre had been divided into two polling stations because of the huge number of voters which is around 1,700.

He expressed the hope that the process would move faster because of the two separate stations.

There were party agents from the NPP, NDC and NDP who expressed satisfaction with the smooth operations of voting process. There were two security officers at the polling station to supervise the elections.

In a related development voting at the Crusade Academy at A-Lang also under the Anyaa-Sowutuom Constituency started quite on time as voting materials arrived at 0730 hours. The stations have been divided into A and B.

Ms Abigail Apenteng, Presiding officer at the Crusade Stations A, said they initially had problems in starting the Biometric Verification Device (BVD) which earlier on refused to pick or scan bar code but it was later fixed.

She said she arrived at the station at 0430 hours and met a long queue of anxious voters some of whom slept at the station.

At the centre were representatives of the NDC, NPP, PPP, PNC and CPP who together expressed satisfaction about the process.

Mr Atta Amponsah, Assistant Collector of CEPS, was at the scene to ensure security and orderliness at the station.

Sixteen out of 601 registered voters in the register had voted as at 0806 hours at the Crusade Station A, while 15 out of 500 registered voters had voted at the Crusade Station B around the same time.

Some of the voters who had the chance to vote early expressed happiness and pride for casting their ballot as legitimate Ghanaians.