No hitches during special voting yesterday

This year’s early voting exercise conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday started and ended smoothly in all the 275 centres across the nation.

The exercise, which started at 7am at most centres, according to information gathered, ended at 5pm without any significant hitches.

A total of 109,557 people, made up of security persons, media people and staff of the EC, were expected to take part in the exercise.

The Managing Editor of THE CUSTODIAN, Mr Awudu Mahama, who visited about six constituencies in the Greater Accra Region, reported that the election process was conducted under strict COVID-19 protocols.

Veronica buckets, temperature guns and hand sanitizers were provided by the EC at all the polling centres visited.

Again, EC officials, political party agents and eligible voters were also masked up and observing social distancing protocols.

Constituencies visited included Dome/Kwabenya, Ayawaso East, Ayawaso North, Odododiodoo, Ablekuma South and Ablekuma Central.

A visit to the Ablekuma Central Constituency at Mataheho Police station showed that the exercise took off smoothly.

A total of 632 eligible voters were expected to cast their ballot the polling station at the time of visiting the venue at about 12noon, a total of 401 had already voted.

At all the polling centres visited, only the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Ghana Union Movement (GUM) had party agents present.

The eight other political parties and the only independent candidate failed to present agents to monitor the voting process.