Voting in the Unit Committee and Assembly Elections is underway in 37 out of the 50 Electoral Areas within the Tema Metropolis.
Mr Gabriel Manu, Tema Metropolitan Electoral Officer, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Tema, on Thursday, assured eligible voters in 11 of the remaining 13 electoral areas that, voting materials in their various areas would be ready by the close of the day, and that they would exercise their franchise on Friday, December 31.
Mr Manu explained that two of the electoral areas, namely, Onukpai Abu and Onyai, have been declared unopposed, because they had only one candidate each, contested in the two electoral areas.
When the GNA visited some of the polling stations in the morning, the general observation was that voting started around 8 am due to the late arrival of voting materials.
The turn-out was very discouraging at the polling stations.
For instance, at the Community One Police Station, a little over 100 out of a total of 2,686, had cast their votes when GNA got there around 10.05 hours.
Mrs Diana Twumasi Nkansah, Presiding Officer at the Community One Police Station, said two people were disallowed to vote, because their names were not on the transfer list.
At the Padmore Number One Polling Station, where four and 16 candidates are contesting the Assembly and the Unit Committee Elections respectively, Mrs Juliana Mensah, the Presiding Officer, disclosed that only 85 out of the 940 eligible voters had exercised their franchise as at 10:35 hours.
As at 11:25 hours, when GNA visited the Adonai Ministries Polling Station at Community 12, where two candidates are vying for the Assembly seat, as low as 100 voters had cast their ballot out of a total of 1,421 eligible voters.
And at the Goshen Polling Station, also in Community 12, Mr William Asamoah, Presiding Officer, told the GNA that only 84 out of the 1,637 voters had cast their votes as at 11:45 hours.