The nationwide special voting by security officials and other personnel, who would be on duty during the Presidential and Parliamentary polls on December 7 ended at 1700 hours on Tuesday with minor skirmishes.
The polls started officially at 0700 hours at all designated polling stations mostly at Police Stations. At the official close of polls there were still long queues at some of the centres with visible signs of desperation on the faces of the electorate.
A Ghana News Agency tour of some of the stations in Accra revealed an unusually high voter turnout by Security Personnel, Media Practitioners, Electoral Officials and other personnel, who qualified to vote.
Characteristically some of the Presiding Officers encountered challenges from some overzealous electorate, polling agents and some media personnel, who complained about trifles.
GNA also observed the presence of Polling Agents of mostly the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Convention People's Party (CPP) and Peoples National Convention (PNC).
Another innovation about the Election 2008 was the wearing of prescribed blue and white jacket with Electoral Commission boldly inscribe at the back and a polo cap with the inscription "EC" in front by the electoral officials whilst the polling booths were also specially designed cupboard that provided privacy for the voter.
GNA also noticed the presence of Local and International Observers at some of the polling stations across the nation.
In an interview with Ghana News Agency, Mr Mohammed Addoquaye, EC Greater Accra Regional Director, said the Commission had taken note of the minor irregularities at some of the polling stations.
He explained that institutions that were supposed to vote created most of the irregularities because they either failed to submit their list on time or never did but their personnel came in their numbers to vote.
Mr Addoquaye urged the electorate, contesting political parties and their agents to play their roles effectively to ensure incident-free polls on Sunday. He also appealed to the media to be circumspect in reporting an irregularity, saying; "you must guide against presenting an irregularity at a few polling stations as if it's a nationwide problem".
