District level polls run into difficulties in Ashanti Region
Voting to pick assembly and unit committee members for the 1,058 electoral areas in Ashanti Region has run into difficulties forcing a re-schedule of the election in seven out of the 27 districts.
These are Amansie West, Atwima-Nwabiagya, Asante-Akim North and South, Sekyere Afram Plains, Sekyere Central and Offinso North.
Voters in three sub-metropolitan areas in Kumasi, Nhyiaeso, Kwadaso and Manhyia could also not take part in the election because they did not receive their ballot papers.
Mr Lawrence Sarpong, the Deputy Regional Electoral Officer, told the Ghana News Agency that the Electoral Commission (EC) would take firm decision on when to organize the poll in the affected areas by the close of the day.
Even in areas where people are voting, the exercise had not been free from glitches.
In the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality for example, the District Electoral Officer, Mrs Alberta Mensah-Bonsu, told the GNA two hours into the polls that, it was being held just 12 out of the 47 electoral areas.
The people in the remaining communities would cast their ballot as and when the electoral materials were delivered.
A tour of some of the polling centres in the Kumasi metropolis showed low voter turn-out.
The tension and euphoria that often characterize elections in the metropolis was completely absent with many of the residents in no mood to be part of the exercise.
At the Asokwa M/A JSS polling centre, 26 people out of 848 registered voters had voted, more than two hours into voting.
Mr Justice Asante Ameyaw, the Presiding Officer, said the turn out was discouraging and blamed this on an earlier announcement by the Commission that voting had been postponed in some areas in the region.
At the T.I. Ahmadiyya centre, 17 out of the 1,919 voters had cast their ballot as of 0931 hours and at the Ahmadiyya JSS ‘A’, 54 out of 1,013 had exercised their franchise.
Twenty-four (24) out of the 845 voters had voted, at Ahmadiyya JSS ‘B’ when the GNA visited.
The story was not different at Ampabame Mount Camel Methodist Church, where 21 out of 1,076 registered voters had cast their ballot in the first two hours of voting.
At the Ampabame Clinic, voting delayed due to the late arrival of election materials and only 6 people had voted when the GNA went there. There are 579 voters at this polling centre.
Thirty-Two (32) people out of 1,436 had already voted at the Bohyen Post Office, as of 0835 hours.
Source: GNA