Voting ends smoothly in many parts of Accra
Voting generally ended smoothly in many parts of the capital, Accra, yesterday when more than 15 million Ghanaian electorate were expected to participate in the crunch national exercise across the country.
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The exercise which began at many polling stations within the metropolis at exactly 7 a.m., ended at 5 p.m. without glitches and was generally free and fair.
The Daily Graphic’s visits to a number of polling stations within the metropolis witnessed an incident-free start to the exercise.
At many polling stations within Ablekuma West, North, South and Central constituencies all voting materials were dispatched on time for voting to commence exactly at 7a.m. Voting was also methodical and cooperation from key stakeholders was a delight to watch.
Long queues
There were also long queues at most of the polling stations amid reasonable security as the voters cast their ballots.
Some of the voters who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they arrived at the polling stations as early as 1 a.m. yesterday. Some voters even disclosed that they began queuing at the polling stations overnight. Some people left stones overnight to reserve their places in the voting queue.
"I needed to register the strong feeling I have about this country with my thumb and the least I could do was to sacrifice sleep," Abu, a 60-year-old man who lives at Dansoman, told the Daily Graphic.
The police told voters to go home after casting their votes.
Loud noises
Loud noises of disapproval rang out when polling officers positioned the voting booths away from the crowd. People demanded that the booths be made to face them so they could see people going in to thumbprint only the assigned ballot papers and no other papers that they suspected could be smuggled in.
Throughout the exercise voting was peaceful and progressed steadily at the various polling stations in the ongoing presidential and parliamentary elections.
Cantonments Stations
Voting started on time at the Cantonments Police Barracks Polling Stations 1&2 within the La Dade Kotopon Constituency with priority being given to security personnel who were on duty at various points but were unable to vote in the special voting exercise.
The elderly, pregnant women and those with challenges were given the opportunity to cast their ballots without joining the queue.
Polling Station 1 had three polling booths characterised by fairly long queues.
Political party agents, mostly representing the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the National Patriotic Party (NPP), and some observers were present at the polling station.
As of 9: 30 a.m. 100 out of the 500 registered voters had already cast their ballots at booth 1A.
