<<Print>>

Yesterday’s District Assembly elections recorded low voter turnout and it all boils down to the National Democratic Congress’ decision to cage their registered voters in Togo from participating in the exercise, Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako has observed.

Some time ago, the leadership of the New Patriotic Party commenced consultative meetings with other political parties on the need for a new voters register as the 2016 general election approaches.

They called on the other parties to support the call for a new register as it was the only way to restore confidence in the country’s electoral system.

The party has also alleged that over 76, 286 people with same names and pictures are in the voters’ registers of both Ghana and Togo.

Presenting what he termed “a damning revelation” which should trigger the need for a new voters’ register in Ghana before the 2016 elections, the vice presidential candidate of the main opposition party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said the uncovering of these foreign nationals in the register is just “10% of the search.”

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP in an interview with Peacefmonline.com noted that if the ruling had allowed their “illegal” voters to decide for Ghanaians, statistics would have proved otherwise.

He therefore cautioned the Electoral Commission to speed up the process of compiling a new voters’ register ahead of the 2016 general elections.

Bernard Antwi Boasiako, alias Chairman ‘Wontumi’ was also elated at the results recorded in the Ashanti Region despite the low turnout.

He revealed that electorates in the region voted for close to 97% of the candidates the NPP wanted to win. With the exception of the Dichemso Electoral Area in the Ashanti Region, voting for the district- level elections took place yesterday at all centres across the country.

The exercise begun at 7 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. Per the Electoral Commission’s rule for the exercise, if by close of voting, voters were still in the queue, voting would continue after which counting of ballots would begin.

Voters would undergo a biometric verification exercise by the electoral officers before they are allowed to cast their ballots for their choice of candidates.

Aside the verification exercise, the presiding officer is also expected to bring together polling assistants, a security officer and any available polling agents and open each of the ballot boxes in their presence, as well as take out the election materials to ascertain that all items are available.