Tension Mounts at Garu over “no Verification no Vote” Syndrome

Tension is brewing in the Garu Constituency as political parties and Electoral Commission officials are divided over the “no verification no vote syndrome” as more people are being denied to exercise their franchise.

As the EC officials suggest manual verification to enable more people to vote, the NPP insist it is illegal under the electoral regulations and cited regulation 34 of CI75 where the EC is expected to suspend election following failure of equipment among other irregularities.

After strong argument from the NPP, the District Electoral Officer, Mr Abdulla Adams reversed the decision to go manual to “no Verification no vote” and have accordingly redirected Presiding Officers to go by the earlier arrangements.

The incumbent MP, Mr Dominic Azimbe Azumah noted that if a very quick decision was not taken to bring the process to rest before election closes, he envisaged chaos especially if night fell and called on other parties to come out with a conclusive decision.

The security apparatus is expressing fear as counting may go into the night whereas there were no lights in most of the places. This they noted had the potential to generate into serious uncomfortable situation.

EC officials have deplored flash lights to the various polling stations to ensure that counting could be done effectively.

Several of the voters fear they may be disenfranchised as the main parties refuse to compromise on the issue about verification.

Voters at the Warikambo JHS A polling station could not vote following the inability of the EC to provide that station with its register.