EC Staff Snored

The seeming low voter turnout in the early stages of the presidential re-run between Nana Akufo-Addo of the governing New Patriotic Party and Professor Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress yesterday provided a good platform for some election officials to enjoy a good sleep mid-way through the voting process. At mid-day yesterday, most of the polling stations visited by The Heritage across the length and breadth of the country had recorded a remarkably lower turnout than the December 7 general election.

The low voter turnout affected the Labour Office polling station at Koforidua, the Eastern regional capital, so much so that some election officials thee defied all the rules to sleep when nobody was showing up to vote.

The presiding officer at the Labour Office polling station, Samuel Baah, told The Heritage that, though people were not showing much interest in the election as at the time the newsmen visited, he was expecting a better turnout in the dying minutes of the election.

At mid-afternoon, the station had recorded 283 out of the 525 eligible voters expected to cast their votes at the station. The process, according to Samuel Baah, had not recorded any bad incident: “everything has so far been very peaceful,” he said. At the Airport Int. Students Hostel at the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency of the Greater Accra region, the presiding officer, Joana Abankwa, attributed the low voter turnout at her station to the fact that many voters had gone to church.

She said, just about the same time when the newspaper visited the place (9.50am) in the December 7 election, they had recorded a much higher turnout. Out of an expected 985 eligible voters, 196 had voted. The transfer list had a single name, but the expected voter was yet to visit.

A reporter said, contrary to some reports of electoral irregularities in certain parts of the country, the Airport students hostel had not witnessed a single untoward incident.

A visit to the Divine Wisdom polling station at the La Dadekotopon constituency of the Greater Accra region also revealed that, out of an expected 1,309 anticipated voters (9.00am) only 235 had been recorded.

The presiding officer at the station told newsmen that the process had been very smooth and peaceful. He expressed the optimism that, by close of day yesterday, more voters would turn up in their numbers to vote.