Voters queuing for their turn to cast their vote
Voting across all the 275 constituencies nationwide started with isolated cases of delays and faulty biometric verification machines that raised temperatures in the affected polling stations.
Voting started as late as 2pm in some centres across the country including the Northern, Greater Accra and Volta regions.
As at 7am- the official commencements of voting- electoral materials were nowhere to be found in these places.
This caused agitations among voters, some of whom had queued since the previous night.
Some disgruntled voters at the Golden Gate A and B polling stations in the Tema West Constituency threatened to boycott the polls due to delays of electoral material.
Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings described the delays as a shame.
In an interview on Oman FM, she noted that the Electoral Commission (EC) had “conducted elections long enough…and these things shouldn’t be happening”.
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor also expressed worry about the hitches recorded during Ghana’s first biometric voting exercise.
The former President, who in 2010 led a team of African Union observers to observe Nigeria’s biometric election, said Ghana could have “taken a leaf” from the Nigerian experience.
“Our chair of the Electoral Commission was there. Perhaps he could have taken a leaf from Nigeria in this respect but I’m not seeing it,” Mr Kufuor told reporters after voting in the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency.
“The whole of Nigeria put a ban on vehicular movement on the election day and then the accreditation was done before 12:00pm for everyone who wanted to vote. At 12pm, the gates were shut, anyone who hadn’t come to be accredited wasn’t allowed to vote.”
Alexander Poku-Akubia, the Greater Accra Regional director of the EC, admitted to DAILY GUIDE that the delays were caused by some logistic constraints caused by the absence of effective distribution vehicles for the materials.
He explained that the EC normally relied on vehicles from other government institutions for delivery; incidentally, these vehicles were low capacity pick-up vans that could mot stock enough materials for distribution to the over 4000 polling stations in the capital.
Mr. Poku-Akubia also blamed the delays on the previous night’s downpour that disrupted the dawn dispatch of the materials.
“This is some of the natural irregularities with elections of this magnitude. These are external factors that we don’t have control over.”
No Verification, No Vote
One of the major causes of discontent during the election was the rate at which the verification machines were rejecting biometric features of some people.
The cause of the rejection is unclear. This has raised debates among experts, with some pushing for a manual alternative if the biometric verification failed. But others insist that the EC’s explicit directive of ‘No Verification no Vote’ should be adhered to.
Christian Owusu Parry, EC Director of Public Affairs, insisted that whoever failed to be verified should not vote to forestall the use of discretion of electoral officers.
In some parts of the Northern Region, some polling stations clamored for a manual option for those rejected. “Clearly, that is not the position of the Commission. It surprises me that somebody would organise others to vote without verification,” he stated.
However, generally, the picture was that of calmness at most polling stations.
Below are snippets of experiences from some constituencies.
Southern Volta
Voting went on in rural Greater Accra and some Southern parts of the Volta Region, namely Kpone Katamanso, Ningo Prampram, Sege and Ada, South Tongu and Akatsi South peacefully, Yaw Owusu reports.
Generally, there was no hiccup in these parts of the country as voting went on relatively smoothly.
The only perceptible concerns to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region was the apparent air of voter apathy at a number of polling stations in a region described as the “World Bank” of the NDC.
For instance, at about 1.30pm in the Sogakope Polling Station in South Tongu, out of the 1,051 registered voters, only 403 had cast their votes; and at the Datome Community Library Polling Station in the Akatsi South, only 476 out of 814 registered voters had voted as at 1.50 pm.
Mercy Abla Kpodo, a trader in Sogakope, explained the apparent apathy: “I do not see any need after doing it [voting] in previous elections without any benefits to me.”
Madina Constituency
Voting started orderly in almost all the polling stations in the Madina Constituency, apart from faulty biometric verification machines in a couple of polling stations, says Frank Muzzu.
For instance, at the Madina Gospel JHS 1 polling station, the verification machine broke down and was not responsive for almost 30 minutes. Eventually, it was restored and voting resumed.
The snaky queues in the early hours of yesterday in most of the centres had shortened by noon.
Meanwhile, the situation was different at the Madina Police Station where voters were grouped alphabetically. This measure disrupted the initial queue, raising tempers slightly. Eventually, the concerns were addressed.
Mawuko Mensah, an electoral officer at the polling station, told DAILY GUIDE that they were compelled to adopt the alphabetical arrangement because of the huge turnout at the polling station.
Ada
DAILY GUIDE’s Mike Avickson reports that there was a general enthusiasm in Ada Foah in the Greater Accra Region. Turnout was generally impressive in this community.
There was an occasional jostling in the queues, slowing down the process momentarily.
In Ada, the problem of late arrival of electoral materials caused some tension. There were also occasional rejections of voters’ biometrics by the verification machine.
At the Togeh RC Primary School polling station, as many as 20 people were rejected by the verification machine.
They tried everything to rectify it, including washing their hands and cleaning their; but they did not do the trick. The disappointed voters had no choice but to go home.
Ledzokuku, Krowor
In the Ledzokuku in Teshie area, Jamila Akweley Okertchiri reports that voters at Nii Ashitey Akomfra Polling Station at Rasta were left in a dilemma as voting delayed by several hours, as it started around 12:30pm.
Voters at the various polling stations in the area including Teshie Glory Day Centre A and B, Aboma Presby Primary ‘A’, ‘B’ and Aboma Nursery School were left waiting for almost four hours before officials of the Electoral Commission and polling agents showed up with some of the equipment.
Most of the voters who went to the voting centres as early as 2:30am in order to vote early were disappointed.
When DAILY GUIDE got to the Glory Day Centre at about 10:30am, electoral officials were still waiting for the cover of one of the ballot boxes and a stamping pad that were not included in the equipment.
Naomi Ayerh, a voter who was at the polling station as early as 5:30am said, “We have been waiting up till now and they have not started. They have brought the polls but there is no stamp, and no ink that we can use to vote, so we are waiting.”
“As for the officials, they were here around 7am but the materials were what delayed. We don’t know why the materials have delayed so we are waiting; this is the first time this is happening, why?” Akwesi Gyemfi, another voter asked.
The same situation was experienced at the other polling stations that DAILY GUIDE visited in the electoral area. When the paper got to the Aboma Primary ‘A’ and B, voting had just started, with 30 people voting out of the registered 694 voters as at 11am.
The presiding officer at Aboma Primary ‘B’, Roger Tetteh Amesimeku, said the centre had to start the process although all the materials were not available.
“We still do not have the forms for the declaration of result of both the parliamentary and presidential candidates at the centre we also do not have a back-up for the biometric verification device,” he said.
At the La Dadekotopon Constituency, voters at the various polling stations were in queues waiting for their turn to exercise their franchise as the atmosphere was relatively calm there.
There was tight security at the Olympia ‘A’ and ‘B’ polling stations to control the heavy crowd that had turned up to vote.
Ablekuma South
Voting generally went on smoothly at the Ablekuma South Constituency except for some scuffles ensuing at some polling stations at Chorkor, Esther Awuah reports.
This was as a result of EC officials segregating voters alphabetically.
At the Blessed Assurance Preparatory School Polling Station at Chorkor, the presiding officer, Matilda Botwe, told DAILY GUIDE that when she reported at the centre at about 4 am, there were long queues at the polling station; therefore it became very hectic for the electoral officers to ask the voters to form new queues in an alphabetical order.
“In fact, a few quarrels ensued between some of the residents and EC officials because they claim we (EC officials) had not been fair to those who came as early as 1 am to vote, but ended up going behind, when the queue had to be formed again.”
As at 10:45 am, about 154 people had voted at that polling station, with over 700 remaining.
At the Korle-Bu Police Polling station, voting began at exactly 7am but at about 1pm, the verification machine went off.
After waiting for about an hour, a Good Samaritan volunteered to buy dry cells (energizer) to power the machine, but that did not work.
At the Ministry of Health Basic School Polling Station at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, voting began at 7:45am, but not without similar misunderstandings between EC officials and voters regarding the formation of new queues.
Some nurses, who were dressed in their uniforms with the intention of voting early so they could return to work, were frustrated about the slow movement of the queue.
Eventually, the nurses were given priority to vote early.
At the Nursing Training College (NTC) Polling Station at Korle-Bu, voters were calmly casting their ballot, when this reporter got there around 9:10 am.
The queue had shortened at this particular polling station. Out of the 1,200 registered voters, about 200 people had voted as at the timeDAILY GUIDE got there.
Ablekuma North
The Ablekuma North Constituency in Accra was tense as impatient voters started heated arguments and mild confrontations, CephasLarbi writes.
The police, in an attempt to control the crowd at the Gloryland Polling Station, sprayed some substance on them which created a chaotic seen as many tried to run for cover. Some of them collapsed after inhaling the substance while others felt dizzy. The situation caused many to leave the polling station to their respective homes, saying they could not risk their lives in an attempt to exercise their democratic right.
Polling agents of the various political parties complained bitterly, saying the police did not act professionally at all. They said the police could have controlled the crowd without spraying the substance on them.
Ablekuma West
At Ablekuma West, Mary Anane reports that even though electoral officers arrived as early as 6.30 am, they were ill-prepared as they could not locate the cover of the ballot box. The momentary confusion caused a delay, resulting in a slight late start of voting (8.30 am).
At some polling centres in this constituency, some officers did not turn up.
The voting process was generally slow because of challenges with the verification machines. It is unclear why the machine rejected the biometrics of men above 70 years of age. Electoral officers could not explain the phenomenon.
The general atmosphere at the constituency was calm. At the Dansoman Police Station Polling Centre, there was heavy security presence.
Odododiodioo
Voting in the Odododiodioo Constituency where Presidential Aide Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, the candidate for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Captain Victor Okaikoi (rtd) of the NPP are the main contenders, was generally peaceful except a few pockets of protest over the alphabetical arrangement for people to vote, Charles Takyi Boadu reports.
It took the intervention of the police to restore sanity to some polling centers where potential voters protested against being made to form new queues after having taken the pains to stay overnight to form queues to enable them to vote early.
This resulted in a few brushes at the various polling centers in the constituency, especially at the Kokomba and Agbogbloshie markets where people nearly exchanged blows after heated arguments.
By 1pm, most of the long queues that were formed in the early hours of the day had begun shortening, enabling police and EC officials to take time off to have lunch.
Interestingly, voting was generally peaceful in places like James Town, Adedenkpo, Zongo Lane and Bukom which were perceived to be flashpoints in view of the level of violence that characterised these areas during the biometric registration exercise.
Former Presidential spokesman Koku Anyidoho was spotted in a camouflage vest with a walkie-talkie in hand, monitoring elections.
Vice Presidential candidate for the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) Eva Lokko, who visited some polling centers in the constituency, was happy with what she had seen so far and expressed optimism that the elections would be peaceful by close of polls.
Ablekuma North
An unknown number of registered voters were disenfranchised in the Ablekuma North area of the Greater Accra Region. At the Odorkor Church of Pentecost Polling Station ‘A’ in the constituency, voters gave security personnel a tough time when they protested rejections by the biometric verification machine, Emelia Ennin Abbey writes.
The disenfranchised voters kept shouting “we will vote” and “we must vote”.
However, Gaisie Sackey, presiding officer of the polling station, insisted that he would not allow them to vote because he was simply following a directive from his superiors.
“No verification, no vote,” he told DAILY GUIDE.
As at 3pm, over 150 voters were affected.
Edward Mensah, a 36-year-old teacher, told DAILY GUIDE that the EC should consider organizing another election for the affected victims. “If a re-election is not conducted for us, then our suspicion that it is sabotage will hold and that will not be a good indication for our growing democracy,” he stated.
However, at two other polling stations, voting went on smoothly.
Eric Agyapong, presiding officer of Odorkor Church of Pentecost Polling Station ‘B’, said out of 591 voters expected to turn up for the voting, only an old lady had difficulty with the verification of her fingerprints.
“We washed her fingers with soap twice and in two hours time we tried it again but the machine could not pick her fingerprints.”
Anyaa Sowutuom Polling Centres
At the Anyaa Sowutuom constituency in Accra, voters started queuing as early as 7pm on Thursday, Linda Tenyah reports.
However, voting got off to a slow start at all the polling stations; it took more than two hours for voting to start.
When the paper visited some of the centres around 7am, the electoral officers were seated idly, waiting for the ballot boxes to arrive.
There were pockets of misunderstandings at the constituency, but the security officials stationed at the centres settled the disputes.
Voters Stranded at East Ayawaso
At the East Ayawaso Constituency in Accra, all was going on well until the verification machine at the Ebenezer Memorial Day Care Polling Centre “B” at Nima in the East Ayawaso Constituency broke down, leaving voters stranded for long hours, Rocklyn Antonio reports.
Gloria Brimpong, the presiding officer for the centre, told DAILY GUIDE that voting, which started at about 7:15am due to delay in delivery of the screens, was smoothly running until 2:37pm when the verification machine broke down.
At the time DAILY GUIDE got to the centre, voting at centre “A” was going on smoothly but voters who had their names registered in the “B” were seen seated or standing and murmuring amongst themselves over the problem.
The presiding officer however did not know when a new machine would be brought because all calls placed to the offices of the EC were not answered.
The centre was expecting 579 voters. As at 5:15pm yesterday, 422 persons had voted, with no sign of the arrival of the machine for the continuation of voting.
A few people could not be verified because the verification machine could not identify them.
In some of the cases, affected persons had to wash their hands once or twice before being identified by the machine.
Ashaiman
The 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections yesterday ended in the Ashaiman Constituency but not without long and winding queues at all the polling stations DAILY GUIDE visited, Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar reports.
As at press time, presiding officers for the Ashaiman SHS, Francis Larweh and Osman Seidu for the African Advanced Technical Primary School Number 1, told this paper that their earlier complaint to superior officers about the breakdown of the machines were not addressed.
The two explained that they had been instructed to wait while solutions to their problems were found. They said they had been assured that back-up machines would be sent to their station so the exercise would continue.
Mr. Seidu said as at about 5:30pm, about 80 percent of voters at his station had left for their homes. He said out of 1,082 voters expected to cast their ballots, only 364 voted before the machine broke down around 1:15 pm.
The situation at other centres visited by the paper was completely different, as the exercise went on smoothly. The presiding officers stated that voting began on time and as at 10am, some of them had recorded more than 250 voters.
Some of them said their verification machines experienced little problems but they were quickly fixed by technicians who were informed.
Most of the residents who spoke to this paper expressed surprise at the large turnout and the matured manner in which they conducted themselves at the various polling stations.
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