Accra, Dec. 28, GNA - The Carter Centre Election Observer Team says Ghanaians should overcome the built-up tension leading up to the run-off and repeat the impressive performance of December 7 that saw fair, transparent and credible elections.
Speaking to journalists at the Madina Police Station polling station, Dr John Stremlau, Vice-President for Peace Programmes at the Carter Centre, said the stakes in the run-off were high and required vigilance on the part of the electorate and election officials. He said the observers had been encouraged by the measures put in place to ensure that the elections were conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner, saying there could not be any perfect system anywhere.
Mr. Aminu Bello Masari, former Speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria, who is co-leader of the delegation, said the voting process had been orderly and urged Ghanaians to do the right thing that they started on December 7. He said a successful conduct of the election in Ghana would be a major milestone for Africa and send signals to other countries that there was no alternative to democracy.
The 58-member team of the Carter Centre has been deployed in the 10 regions and will release preliminary findings on its observation of the run-off elections on Tuesday. Meanwhile, voting had been going on smoothly when the GNA visited some polling stations within the Abokobi-Madina constituency in the Ga East District. At the Madina Police Station polling station, voting commenced at exactly 0700 hours. Long before the commencement of voting the enthusiastic crowd kept their positions in the queue in an orderly manner. At about 0730 hrs. when the GNA left the centre over 30 people had voted.
At the Central Mosque A and B polling stations, the Presiding Officers Mr Emmanuel Ahiavi and Mr. Albert Aboagye respectively said they received the electoral materials as early as 0430 hrs and voting commenced exactly at 0700 hours. Similar trends were observed at the New Apostolic Church polling station and Sub-district office Madina A and B polling stations where voters waited patiently in the long and winding queues to cast their ballot.
A disagreement over the method to adopt to validate ballot papers before giving it out to potential voters at the Lante-Dzanwe polling station near the La market in the Dade-kotopon constituency nearly turned nasty but for the heavy presence of the military at the centre.
When the GNA got to the polling station around 0715 hours, there were armed soldiers at the centre trying to bring the situation under control following disagreements between the Presiding Officer, Mr. Theodore Adjei and some New Patriotic Party (NPP) agents who had insisted that the ballot papers should only be stamped at the back as and when a voter showed up to cast his or her ballots.
"I am here to see to the interest of my party. We were instructed that when a voter turned up, the ballot paper should be validated at the back with the Electoral Commission stamp one at a time," an angry NPP agent told the GNA. Mr Adjei, however, countered these arguments, saying to facilitate the voting process he thought it prudent to endorse the papers with the EC stamp ahead of time to speed up the process and this had infuriated the NPP agents.
The presence of the armed military men, apparently on patrol, however, defused the tension and although the atmosphere was charged, voting went on as voters had turned up in their numbers as was the case on December 7. The EC official stopped stamping the ballot papers ahead of voters' arrival when GNA left the polling station.
When the GNA visited other polling stations in the same constituency, such as the CDR Office, Konney Tsuru and the Olympia Cinema centres, people had turned up very early to cast their ballots. Some potential voters in long queues at the Olympia Cinema hall polling station protested over the slow process of checking names in the register.
An elderly woman, Madam Emelia Sowah, who had turned up as early as 0300 hours, questioned why the electoral officers were taking up so much time in locating names in the register. The situation was, however, different at some polling stations at Klottey Korle constituency as EC officials and polling staff were virtually on holiday as the long queues which had characterised the previous elections were absent. With the exception the long queue at the Osu Police Station centre, centres such as the Temporary booth G-Maa, Osu Presby 2 Junior High School and Blogodo saw people trickling in to cast at their ballots.
Voting in the presidential run-off in some polling stations in the Effutu constituency started peacefully and orderly. Some of the voters formed the queue as early as 0300 hours to enable them cast their early and do their daily activities.
At the Domeabra Social Welfare polling station, the Presiding Officer, Mr Kofi Edzi, told the Ghana News Agency that eight out of the 902 eligible voters had cast their votes as at 0715 hours. The Presiding Officer of the Taxi Rank polling, Mr Ernest Enniful, said 42 out of 708 eligible voters had cast their votes as at 0705 hours when the GNA visited the station. He explained that voting delayed for some few minutes due to late arrival of voting materials as a result of transportation problems.
At the A.M.E. Zion Church 'A' polling station the Presiding Officer, Ms Beatrice Blankson, said 39 out of 1,232 registered voters had cast their votes as at 0740 hours.
The Presiding Officer of the A.M.E. Zion Church 'B' polling station, Mr Charles Rockson, told the GNA that five out of 712 eligible voters had cast their votes as at 0748. At Sekagyano polling station the Presiding Officer, Mr Boadi Jim Robert, said 109 out of 923 registered voters had cast their votes as at 0815 hours.
The Presiding Officer of the Yepimso 'A' polling station Mr Emmanuel Agyei Ahin told the GNA that 140 out of 1,181 registered voters had cast their votes as at 0828 hours. At the Yepimso 'B' polling station the Presiding Officer, Mr Daniel Jackson, said 133 out of 1,107 eligible voters had cast their votes as at 0833 hours when the GNA visited the station.
The Presiding Officer of the Nazareth 'A' polling station, Mr Samuel Kwarteng, said 151 out of 1,458 registered voters had cast their votes as at 0850 hours. At the Nazareth 'B' polling station the Presiding Officer, Mr John Asido, said 153 out of 1,514 registered voters had cast their votes as at 0859 hours. At all the polling station GNA visited, the agents of the NPP and NDC were present.
Voting in the Upper East has started with few voters in queues at various polling centres in Navrongo when GNA visited between 0700 hours and 0850 hours, apparently because of the prevailing cold harmattan conditions.
At the Social Welfare 'A' Polling Centre at Navrongo in the Navrongo Central Constituency, the Presiding Officer, Cletus Achana said all the voting materials arrived on time for polling to start at 0700 hours and by 0730 hours 33 people had voted with 20 in a queue. There are 662 voters on the register with 27 on the transfer voters list.
At the nearby Social Welfare 'B' Polling Centre, the Presiding Officer Seidu Adinan said all voting materials were received on time for voting to start on schedule. By 0735 hours 33 people had also exercised their franchise and three were in a queue. There are 643 names on the voters register and 15 on the voters transfer list.
At Namolo Primary 'B' Polling Centre, the Presiding Officer, Alphonse Nchobonu said voting started on schedule. There are 707 names on the voters register, 39 on the transfer list; 79 had voted by 0800 hours with four people in a queue. While at Namolo Primary 'A' Polling Centre 82 had voted by 0805 hours. The Presiding Officer Lawrence Chanase said voting started at 0700 hours. There are 710 names on the voters register with 45 on the transfer list and seven in a queue.
When GNA visited Basina Primary 'B' Polling Centre at 0838 hours 150 voters had cast their ballot with five in a queue. The Presiding Officer, Mr Gerald Awozare said voting started on schedule. There are 775 names on the voters register and six on the transfer voters list. At the Basina Primary 'B' (A) Polling Centre 123 people had voted by 0840 hours with six in a queue.
The Presiding Officer Osman Alhassan said there were 772 names on the voters register and four on the transfer list. At Basina Primary 'A' Polling Centre 159 people had exercised their franchise by 0850 hours with four in a queue. The Presiding Officer, Jacob Adda said there were 891 names on the voters register with one on the transfer list. All the presiding officers said voting had been smooth with no incident and both the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party had two agents each at all polling centres.
