Special voting moving smoothly in Eastern Region

Eligible voters in the Eastern and Western regions on Thursday took their turn to vote in the special voting exercise meant for security agencies, officials of the Electoral Commission (EC), journalists and other persons who will be playing special roles in the December 7 general election.

The exercise will take place at 33 voting centres in the Eastern Region and 17 in the Western Region from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A total of 131,478 voters, representing 0.007 per cent of the total registered voters (18,741,159), are captured on the list of special voters by the EC.

Although the special voting took place across the country on Monday (December 2), it could not be held in the two regions following the recall of ballot papers for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

From Eastern Regional capital of Koforidua, our reporter Haruna Yussif Wunpini reports that the exercise commenced smoothly at the Galloway Police Canteen and the Effiduase Police Station polling centres in the New Juaben South and New Juaben North Municipalities.

A total of 1,017 voters were expected to cast their votes at Galloway Police headquarters in the special voting which is made up of polling stations A and B.

At the Effiduase Police Station polling station, a total of 492 registered voters were expected to cast their ballots.

As of 10: 24 am in the New Juaben South Constituency, more than 232 registered voters had voted. 

At Effiduase Police Polling Station in the New Juaben North constituency, a total of 97 out of 492 registered voters had voted by 10 am.

The Deputy Municipal Electoral Officer, Halimatu Ahmed told Graphic Online that the process was smooth and peaceful.

Background

As explained by the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, during an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), the decision to recall the printed ballot papers was prompted by the detection of a broken seal on electoral materials in the Eastern Region.

In the case of the Western Region, there were no reported challenges with the ballot papers, but the EC suspended the special voting in the region as a precautionary measure because the printing press responsible for the Eastern Region ballots also handled those for the Western Region.