Ayawaso Central: Voting kicks off slowly

Irene Narh-Saam Politics Dec - 17 - 2019 , 13:54

It is Tuesday, December 17, 2019 and Ghanaians across the country are electing Assembly members and unit committee members.

Monitored reports suggest voting commenced at 7 am in a lot of polling centres as scheduled, however, the exercise began at about 7:15 am at two polling stations in the Ayawaso Central constituency of the Greater Accra region due to delays in the supply of election materials.

At the Newtown Post Office 1 polling station, the Presiding Officer, Mr Emmanuel Adade told Graphic Online that though there was a delay, all the materials needed for the exercise have been provided.

A total of 700 electorates are expected to vote and as of 10:30 am, almost 200 people had cast their votes.

Mr Adade said though there had not been any queue so far, he was confident that the turnout would be encouraging at the end of the day.

Three candidates, all men - Mr Amos Gonja Field, Mr Musah Yusuf and Mr Abubakar Alhassan - are contesting for the Assembly member position whilst 17 are contesting to be elected as unit committee members.

Meanwhile, at the Aryee Diki electoral area, 62 people out of a total of 710 people in the register had voted as of 10:10 am.

A polling agent at the centre, Mrs Betty Owusu told Graphic Online that the turnout this year was low compared to that of 2015.

She recalled that four years ago there was a queue and that showed how enthused people were to be involved in the whole election process, but the situation now, she said, is not the same this year.

According to Mrs Betty Owusu, in 2015 there were only two centers (A&B) but because there were long queues, an additional center (C) has been added, insisting however that it does not explain the low interest this year.
She is hopeful though that the number of people expected to vote would have cast their vote by evening.