Police arrests candidate, three polling agents

Daboase (W/R), Jan. 5, GNA - The Police on Tuesday arrested David Mensah, a candidate of the District Level Elections (DLE) for the Nsadweso Electoral Area in the Western Region and his three polling agents for allegedly stealing a booklet of ballot papers at the Odumase Polling Centre= .. Mr Yaw Amoah Gyasi, Mpohor Wassa East District Electoral Officer, made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Daboase on Wednesday.

He said the Presiding Officer of the Polling Centre detected the theft of the booklet containing 50 ballot papers and alerted the Returning Officer. Mr Gyasi said during the counting of votes, it was detected that 46 ballot papers were thumb-printed with blue ink instead of black ink used by the Electoral Commission (EC). He said the back of the ballot papers bore the stamp of Ola Cocoa Company instead of the stamp of the EC.

Mr Gyasi said the Police were brought in and during investigations, it came to light that ballot papers were given to some people to put into the ballot box. He said Mr Mensah and the polling agents were, therefore, arrested to assist the police in the investigations.