Interesting scenarios at Odododiodoo
While voting was largely peaceful in the Odododiodoo Constituency with occasional hot exchanges between people who believed others wanted to cheat, some conventional arrangements at polling stations were also altered.
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For instance, at some polling centres voters had their backs to those waiting in line as well as the electoral table instead of shielding themselves in the booths provided.
When the Daily Graphic first made this observation at the Mamprobi Salaga Taxi Rank Polling Centre with number C090401B, the Presiding Officer, Mr Patrick Mills, explained that the voters insisted that the open side of the booth face them so that they would be able to detect if a voter decided to introduce another ballot paper other than what had been provided by the EC officials.
“They said they wanted the booth turned towards everyone. This morning it was not easy here. They nearly fought my district returning officer here when he said the booths should be turned the other way,” he said.
Out of the expected voter population of 534, 204 had already cast their ballots as of 11:05 a.m. when the Daily Graphic got there.
The situation was not different at the 401A Polling Centre of the Mamprobi Salaga Taxi Rank where the open side of the two booths were also facing the queue of voters awaiting their turn.
Manual and biometric verification
At the 401A Polling Centre, on the other hand, the Presiding Officer, Ms Jessica Amoah, said they had on three occasions verified voters manually because all their 10 fingers could not produce thumb prints.
Explaining the verification process, she stated: “We first use the forefinger on the right hand, then the left and if we are not able to biometrically verify you from those fingers, we use the remaining fingers. Some of the people have all their fingerprints destroyed due to the nature of their work so we have to verify them manually,” she added.
Inconsistent serial numbers
Voters at the Swalaba Bath House Polling Station with number C090309B were nearly stopped from casting their ballots as a result of some inconsistency in the serial numbering on the parliamentary ballots which did not tally with the recording of the polling agents of the people who were voting.
The call by the Presiding Officer, Mr Baniba Orison, on the polling agents not to worry about the printing anomaly as that would not affect the counting of the number of people who had cast their ballots was initially rejected by the agents.
The polling agents, however, agreed to let the voting continue and rather note the serial numbers on their cards, after they had consulted with their superiors via telephone.