Political party agents absent from exhibition centres in Ho

Ho, Oct. 7, GNA - Political party agents, vital ingredients in the electoral process, have been conspicuously absent from all but one voters exhibition centre visited by Ghana News Agency in Ho Township and neighbouring Sokode on Monday and Tuesday.

The only exception was Fiave Global Exhibition centre in Ho where National Democratic Congress (NDC) was represented. The exercise which began on Sunday October 5, to Saturday October 11, was to afford registered voters the opportunity to ascertain their names and other particulars on the voters register and for the political parties to help the Electoral Commission to clean the registers in preparation towards Election 2008.

Mr Isaac Kodobisa, Vice-Chairman of Ho Central Constituency of NDC told GNA that clearance was received from the Party's headquarters late Sunday to deploy observers to the exhibition centres and efforts were being made to appoint agents by Wednesday, October 8. Mr Charles Gadotor, Administrator at New Patriotic Party (NPP) Volta Regional Office at Ho, said he was not aware of the absence of the party's agents at the exhibition centres because appointed agents were expected to be at the centres.

He promised to contact the NPP Volta Regional Organiser to find out what was happening. Offices of Convention People's Party (CPP) and Democratic Freedom Party's (DFP's) at Ho were closed when GNA visited. Exhibition Officials at centres visited in Ho said some voters who called to check their names said they had lost their voter identity cards.

Mr Dickson Dokpornu, Exhibition Official at Fiave centre suggested that management of the EC followed the measures instituted by the managements of Ghana Water Company and Electricity Company of Ghana to send vehicles round town early morning to alert the public on the exercise.

He said the municipal nature of Ho made the use of gong-gong to announce the exhibition exercise ineffective.

In the four Sokode towns, predominantly farming communities, exhibition officials told GNA that information about the exhibition were sent out through the gong-gong, announcements in churches on Sunday and personal contacts.

The response to the exhibition has been generally slow in both Ho and Sokode but Exhibition Officials in Sokode explained that most of those who came to check their names did so late in the afternoon after returning from their farms.