SPECIAL POOLS ORDERLY, Pockets of distractions recorded (Front Page)

03/12/2008
Story: Abdul Aziz & Mary Mensah
A Special voting exercise took place across the country today for security, electoral commission and media personnel who will perform duties on the elections day.
Voting started at the designated centres at 7 am in the morning and its expected to end at 5 pm after which the boxes will be kept under police guard till Sunday before it will be counted.
In the Greater Accra Region voting went on smoothly at most of the centres visited but there were some pockets of confusion at some centres.
At the Osu police barracks voting was halted by the NDC and CPP parliamentary candidates for Korley Klotttey constituency who claimed that the electoral officers were taking down names and polling station numbers and allowing people to vote instead of going according to the list of special voters they have.
Some people also complained that instead of stamping the back of the ballot papers it was signed by the electoral officers.
They challenged the electoral officers that if they continued with the exercise they will reject the voting from that centre and this generated into a heated argument and the police quickly sent a number of patrolmen to the area to avert any clash.
But according to the electoral officer at the police barracks, Mr Clement Adonae 3, 400 eligible voters who will perform special duties were supposed to vote at the centre.
He said the District electoral officer had a meeting with the representatives of the various parties and it was agreed that in order to allow more people to vote before 5 pm instead of going through the long list names should be written so that at the end of the day it will be reconciled.
He said voting started smoothly at 7am but it was stopped by the party representatives saying that because of the process people who are not special voters were being allowed to vote but the problem was resolved and voting continued only to be halted again by the parliamentary candidates.
At the Cantonments Police Station, Burma Hall, Teshie Military Academy, Teshie Police station, Kpeshie Divisional Police Command voting went on smoothly with the same process of writing down names.
At Amasaman apart from an incident where a campaign vehicle of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) pulled at the Electoral Commission near the area where the special voting exercise was taking place which attracted protests from the National Democratic Congress party accredited agent, the voting was conducted in a cordial atmosphere.
The NDC agent protested to the returning officer of the electoral commission who ordered the vehicle to leave the vicinity.
The occupant of the vehicle who was in a flowing Mohammadan gown popularly known in local parlance as ‘jalabia’ complied and jumped into the vehicle sped off.
Mr Richard Wormenor, the returning officer at the polling station said as at 10 am 229 voters had cast their votes from an expected number of 500 voters.
The Kotobabi Police station as at mid day the queues were still long as benches were made available for voters awaiting their turns to vote to sit down while others who could endure stood in the long queues.
Mr Edward Ofei Quansah, the returning officer at the Kotobabi Police Station Polling centre told the Graphic that as at 12.30 in the afternoon 260 people had voted out of a total of 500 expected to vote.