Ghana election: Special voting ends

The section of the Ghanaian electorate categorised as ‘Special Voters’ ended their voting on Tuesday evening to elect a president and parliamentarians.

The competition is being keenly contested by eight presidential aspirants and 1,332 parliamentary candidates.

Polling started at 0700 hours and ended at 1700 hours at all the polling stations with a few starting a bit late due to technical hitches.

This is the first time Ghana is using a biometric register.

Seven of the eight presidential candidates are running on the tickets of various political parties, while there is one independent candidate. A total of 1,332 parliamentary candidates are slugging it out for 275 constituencies.

The presidential candidates are President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Abu Sakara of the Convention People’s Party, Mr Hassan Ayariga of the People’s National Convention, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party, Mr Akwasi Addai of the United Front Party, Dr Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party and the Independent Candidate, Mr Joseph Osei-Yeboah.

Generally, security personnel, made up of staff of the Police Service, Ghana Armed Forces, Prisons Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana National Fire Service, the Electoral Commission   other voters took part in the special voting because they would be working on the election day.

Unfortunately, media personnel, who had always been part of the special voting, were not part of this year’s exercise because of a legal requirement which could not be met by the media.

Polling stations for this special exercise are located at designated points including police stations and the headquarters of the Immigration, Fire Service, Prisons and the Military.

Source: GNA