Voting in nine Electoral Areas in the Upper West Region has been suspended due to the inability of the Electoral Commission to supply them with the required voting materials, Ghana News Agency investigations revealed at Wa on Tuesday.
The Electoral Areas are Nayiri and Guli Electoral Areas in the Wa Municipality, Tiiwi, Jusua and Jawia Electoral Areas in the Sissala West District and Banu, Nyaminjang, Stadium Residential Electoral Areas in the Sissala East District and Kojokperi Electoral Area in the Nadowli District.
Most of the polling stations the GNA visited in the Wa Municipality recorded an encouraging voter turn-out as voters were in long queues to cast their ballots.
At the Dobile Electoral Area in the Wa Municipality voting was going on smoothly with people cueing to cast their votes when the GNA went there.
At the Wa Catholic Primary polling station in the Dobile Electoral Area, out of a total of 1,630 registered voters, about 230 people had
already cast their votes as at 1100 hours.
At the Catholic JHS polling station which has a voter population of 1,353, only 173 people had voted at 1105 hours while at the TB Low Cost
polling station 105 voters had cast their ballot as at 1115 hours out of the 966 registered voters.
At the Pastoral Center polling station, 183 voters had cast their vote out of the 1,006 registered voters as at 1200 hours.
Madame Pauline Azayele, Presiding officer at the station, described the election as peaceful but was worried about the slow pace of the voter turn out.
In some of the polling stations no security men were present but everything was going on smoothly as at the time of our visit.
At the Environmental “A” polling station in the Kabanye Electoral Area, 150 people had voted at the time the GNA went there at 1000 hours out of a total voting population of 891 while at the adjacent Environmental “B” polling station in the same electoral area 134 ballots had been cast out of 868 total voters.
A number of people who went about their duties as if nothing was happening said they were not going to vote because they did not know the
candidates.
“This is a small election so I will not waste my time by going to vote. I have never voted in any district assembly election. Moreover I don’t know the candidates”, said Iddrisu Issahaku, a hawker of second hand clothing.