2012 SPECIAL VOTING OBSERVED IN CENTRAL REGION

By Lisette Hummelink & Kwamina Bamfo-Agyei

However the actual elections won’t start until Friday, the first votes have procured. The special voting started today all over the country, so that the officers of the Electoral Commission and the security officers, whom have to make sure the voting on Friday goes smoothly, have a chance to cast their votes.

The special voting took place in the Twenty –three constituencies in Central Region; registered voters for the special voting are able to cast their ballots from 7am until 5 am. The first voters start to join the queue at 6am, despite the fact they will have to wait for an hour. As soon as it is his or her turn, the voter will walk up to the first table, to get his ID card checked and to make sure that his name is in the attendance book for the special voting. If so, he gets referred to the second table, where the voters bar code on his card gets checked, so the Electoral Commission can be more than certain that the person is actually who he says he is. On top of that, there’s the thumbprint checking, to verify the person. All these measures make it impossible for voters to cheat on their identity, so that voting is as candid as can be.
 

The voter, once he is verified, uses his left pinkie for voting. At the third table, he gets given the presidential ballot paper. Once he has fingerprinted it, an deposed it into the designated box, he can walk up to the fourth table and gets given the parliamentary ballot paper. After fingerprinting it, both the papers are safely in the designated boxes, and the voter is done. 

The number of cast votes are encouraging. This morning at 10am, for Cape Coast North constituency, already 116 votes out of 435 have been submitted. For Cape Coast South constituency, it is 234 out of 656 at 10:30am. For KEEA constituency, there are 445 registered voters for today, whereof 181 had already cast their vote at 11am. A bit further, for Salt Pond constituency, the number of registered voters is 176, whereof an astonishing number of 106 submitted their vote at 12:30pm. The most recent incoming constituency, Ekumfi, had 27 registered voters for today, and by 1pm, 15 of them have caste their vote. At Asikuma Odoben Brakwa all the 120 registered voters cast their votes at end  of the exercise. Also Assin South recorded 107 out of the 147 people who were expected to cast their votes as of 12noon, while Asin Central recorded 111 of the votes cast out of the 610 people who were supposed to cast their votes as of the time of going to the press. Abura Asebu Kwamankese recoded 84 people that have gone through the process out of the 138 that were expected to cast their votes.

Some of the officers expected to participate in the special voting did not find their names on the registered. Sequentially, these people were ruled out of today’s voting. The Central Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Philomena Edusei, noted that this is presumably because the above voters did not apply individually to be part of the special voting in time. She noted that it is not automatic for security officers to vote on the special voting day since they need to apply for it. Madam Edusei disclosed that security officers were informed to apply individual. She told that it is not a problem, and these people will find a moment on Friday, the actual day of voting, where they will be able to strip away and cast their vote.