EC official
Fifty officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) who were supposed to man the various polling stations in the Northern Region failed to turn up on voting day without prior notice to the Commission.
The absence of the officials, according to the regional director, Sylvester Kanyi, affected the early start of voting in a number of polling stations across the region as efforts were made for an alternative.
Speaking exclusively to DAILY GUIDE, Mr. Kanyi disclosed that the EC recruited and trained about 11,930 personnel to assist the commission in all the 2,386 polling stations in the region only to be disappointed on voting day by some of them.
According to him, he had earlier envisaged this problem; therefore he trained standby staff who had since been deployed to take over from the absentees as his outfit was determined to ensure that prospective voters were not disenfranchised.
He told DAILY GUIDE that challenges in transporting electoral materials and availability of security personnel were among some of the reasons for the late start of voting but disclosed that the closing time would be extended to cover all voters captured on the register.
The EC official appealed to prospective voters to abide by the rules governing the voting processes in order not to create fear and panic among residents in the area.
Meanwhile, there were long queues at a number of polling stations within the Tamale metropolis and surrounding districts.
Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that voters started queuing on Thursday at about 10pm to ensure that they were not left out in the exercise.
According to some of them who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, they attached importance to this exercise and had to sleep overnight at the polling station to take part in the decision-making process of the country.
A number of them however complained of the slow pace at which the voting was going, following the failure of the verification machines to authenticate the details of a number of voters at some polling stations visited.
EC officials at some polling stations had to halt proceedings as the verification machines intermittently broke down, leaving some voters frustrated as they wondered why replacement of such machines were not immediately done as promised by the EC.
On the other hand, as at midday yesterday, security personnel were on top of issues as they nipped few pockets of incidents in the bud and responded swiftly to emergencies.
Northern Regional Police Commander DCOP George Tuffour told DAILY GUIDE reports received so far suggested his men were on top of issues, noting that security details in all the polling stations were up to the task.
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