Titus-Glover appeals to EC to make room for disenfranchised officers
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Tema East, Mr Daniel Titus-Glover, has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to make the necessary arrangements to allow officers who were unable to cast their ballot during the special voting exercise carried out yesterday to do so.
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He said those officers would be assigned to various areas during the main elections on December 7, 2016 and it was important that efforts would be made to allow them to vote early before they report to their various posts.
Mr Titus-Glover who is seeking re-election was speaking to the Daily Graphic team at the Tema Community One Police Barracks Polling Station, where the special voting exercise for Tema East took place yesterday.
Mr Titus-Glover noted that those officers played a very crucial role in the whole election exercise and it would be unfair that through no fault of theirs, they would be disenfranchised.
He has subsequently appealed to the Inspector General of Police to immediately ensure the various police commands would send a wireless message to all stations on the issue about the police officers who were not able to find their names on the special list and therefore could not vote.
Mr Titus-Glover said it was important that the commands of the affected personnel ensured that they had voted before they were assigned to their various posts for the main election exercise.
“I am really concerned about the exercise and I’m disappointed that some people will come here and not find their names,” he stated.
Kempes-Ofosuware
For his part, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate, Mr Kempes Ofosuware, described the exercise as generally peaceful and expressed the hope that the main elections would be equally peaceful and successful.
“You can see the queue is moving smoothly and everybody is waiting patiently,” he stated, adding that one does not expect anything less than what was happening.
The independent candidate contesting the seat, Mr Theophilus Nii Ankamah Densu-Tetteh, who was also at the centre to monitor proceedings, commended the EC for the manner the elections were being conducted.
He expressed the hope that residents in the constituency would turn out in their numbers to vote on December 7, 2016.
Presiding Officer
The Presiding Officer, Mr Samuel Jerry Ankomah, told the Graphic team that 652 voters were expected to cast their ballot at the station.
He noted that some of the parliamentary contestants raised objection to the list, saying it had the names of voters from the Ashaiman Constituency.
The protestation, he said, necessitated the need for the EC to withdraw the earlier list and a second register was brought, to which he said one of the candidates again raised objection.
“The third register was only brought to the Constituency late Wednesday evening and we could not submit it to the police command for the officers to check their names,” Mr Ankomah said.
Mr Ankomah said the exercise started at 7 a.m.
When the Daily Graphic team got there at about 9.45 a.m., about 104 voters had cast their ballot.
Tema West
At Tema West, where some 880 people voted, about 10 officers who could not exercise their franchise verbally abused the officials of the EC, describing them as incompetent.
The exercise was, however, generally peaceful except for few skirmishes where livid officers openly expressed their anger.
The Deputy Returning Officer for Tema West, Mr Roger Klu, described the incident as unfortunate.
According to him, the EC was not responsible for any mishap in connection with the names that were excluded from the register.
He indicated that prior to the compilation of the final register, a supplementary register was submitted to the various station officers at the Tema Community Two and Eight police stations to enable officers to verify their names.
“If you can’t find your names here, it only implies that your superiors failed to do due diligence, so do not direct your anger at us,” Mr Klu told the livid officers.