District Assembly elections start in Upper East

Bolgatanga, Dec. 30, GNA - District assembly and unit committee elections on Thursday started in parts of the Upper East Region whilst some districts and electoral areas will have their turn tomorrow. The Bawku East, Garu-Tempani and Bawku West districts are scheduled to vote on Friday due to the Samanpiid Festival taking place today in Bawku. In the Bolgatanga Municipality, 19 electoral areas are not voting for the Unit Committee because of lack of ballot materials, while in the Talensi=96Nabdam District, 11 electoral areas are not voting and in Kassena Nankana East, three electoral areas are not voting.

Speaking to the GNA in Bolgatanga Mr. Bruce Ayisi of the Electoral Commission explained that the unit committee ballot materials were not enough for all the electoral areas and so voting in those areas would take place on Friday. Voting at many stations in the Bolgatanga Municipality could not start at 0700 hours. At Kumbosco area, there was no sign that voting would take place whiles over voters had queued by 741 hours at Zuarungu Central and Zuarungu South waiting for voting to start because the ballot materials were not ready then. Out of 1,636 expected voters, only 24 had voted at 0800 hours in Aganabiisi. Mr Johnson Konlan, the Presiding Officer, said the materials did not arrive on time.

The Presiding Officer at the Adase JSS, Mr John Yidana, said his statio= n received only 250 ballot papers for the exercise and that would not be sufficient to cover the 807 registered voters if there is a good turn out. Other stations in the Tindanmolgo area had the same complaint.

At the Odidodiodio Constituency, voters trickled in when the polls opened. Though voting materials did not arrive on time in most areas visited, all voting centres had more than enough materials. Mrs Mercy Obeng-Akrofi, Presiding Officer, in an interview with GNA, attributed the slow turnout to the fact that it was a working day and many people had gone to work.

At the Sempe 1, 2 & 3 two centres, turnout was not encouraging. "It is also a fishing community and we hope people will want to make some money for the day before coming to vote. I hope by the close of day, many people would have come to vote to elect their district assembly and their unit committee members," she said. At the Sempe 2 Centre, only 42 voters out of the 591 registered voters had cast their ballots as at 1000 hours. Ms Animwaa Obeng-Akrofi, Presiding Officer, told the GNA that the dela= y in starting the voting was due to the non-availability of a vehicle to convey the materials to the centre. "Yes, the turnout is not encouraging but I hope they will turn out i= n their numbers before the end of the day," she added.

The situation at Sempe 3 voting centre was not different. Only 43 out of the 687 registered voters had turned out to vote by 1000 hours. Voters were seen trickling in one after the other whilst other resident= s were seen busily going about their normal daily work. Mr William Lampety, Presiding Officer for Sempe 3, commended the polling agents for being cooperative since the beginning of the elections. At the Kwaafori Centre, only 57 out of the 560 registered voters had turned out to vote and Ms Diana Awetteh, the Presiding Officer, said she ha= d enough logistics for the exercise. The Shiino Block Centre at 1030 had seen 136 voters out of the 1,289 registered voters. At the James Town Manste Court, which is under the Ngleshie Electoral area, 65 voters had voted as at 1045 hours and Mr Faisel Laryea, the Presiding Officer, attributed the low turnout to the delay in commencing th= e voting.

He explained that the agents of the candidates did not turn up in time for the commencement of the voting. "People wanted to vote early so they could go to work but the agents for the contesting candidates were not around for us to open the ballot box= , so they left and promised to come back before close of voting. I hope they will come back," he added. Three candidates are contesting for the position of the district assembly member while nine people, including one female, are contesting for the unit committee election. A cross-section of residents seen busily going about their daily chore= s told GNA spoke that the postponement of the elections had taken the vim out of them.

At the University Staff Primary in the Okponlgo electoral area, voting stated at 0900 and 36 out of 1,011 voters had cast their ballots at 1124 hours hours.

At the Akuafo Hall Main voting started at 0730 hours and 12 people had voted out of 2,502 at 1108 hours. At the Commonwealth Hall, voting started at 0727 hours and 13 out of 2,243 had voted at 1125 hours. The presiding officer, said the low level of publicity, rescheduling of the voting, students' examinations, students being on holidays and studen= ts who have left campus because they had completed their courses accounted for the low voter turnout. At the Restaurant C23/29 Okponglo voting started at 0923 hours and 31 out of 1,482 had voted by 1145 hours.