Cop Goes Mad Over Special Voting

A FRUSTRATED policeman yesterday disrupted the Special Voting exercise at the Community 2 District Headquarters polling centre in the Tema West Constituency of the Greater Accra Region.

The aggrieved police officer, who was not immediately identified, scattered tables being used by officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct the exercise.

His reason was that he could not find his name to exercise his franchise.

He was later joined by some colleagues who hurled insults at the EC officials before quickly disappearing from the scene.

Officials of the commission said they were helpless when the incident was happening and had to only look on as the angry policeman physically descended on them.

Unlike all the polling stations in the country, the Tema West Constituency was without a police officer to provide security at the centre.

The reason was that the policeman who was on duty decided to leave the EC officials to their fate because his colleagues who visited the place were disenfranchised as a result of their missing names from the register.

A presiding officer refused to comment on the issue, saying that he had written down his statement about the incident after the aggrieved security officer had left.

Polling centres visited by the DAILY GUIDE in the Tema Region revealed that personnel from the security agencies were still being turned away from the polling centres.

Most of the workers of the EC were seen doing little or no work at all as a result of the low turnout at the various polling stations.

Tempers

Tempers flared up at most of the polling centres for yesterday’s second round of special voting in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Emmanuel Opoku writes from Takoradi

Aggrieved security personnel whose names could still not be found on the voters’ list, engaged the electoral officers in heated verbal exchanges.

They could not fathom why after the Electoral Commission (EC) had promised to rectify the hiccup that had characterized the first round of the voting, the problem still persisted.

The personnel, mostly police and military officers, insisted that they registered in their respective constituencies and submitted their names for the special voting, but could not find their names on the list.

They, therefore, accused the EC of deliberately omitting their names from the list but vowed that nothing could prevent them from exercising their constitutional right in the 2016 general election.

Some of them who spoke to DAILY GUIDE in separate interviews, threatened to vote on December 7 before assuming duty at wherever they would be sent to.

Low Turnout

There was low turnout at the various polling stations across the 33 constituencies in the Eastern Region, Daniel Bampoe reports from Koforidua.

The low turnout was experienced when news went round that some officers who didn’t vote last Thursday still had their names missing in the voter register yesterday.

DAILY GUIDE’s visit to most of the polling stations in the region spotted the electoral officers on duty idling about.

Some of the presiding officers noted that the security officers failed to come to the centres to cast their votes because there was news all over that their names were missing from the special voting register.

At the Koforidua Galloway polling station, the Presiding Officer hinted that most of the police officers didn’t have their names in the register.

Commander Name Still Missing

The Commanding Officer of the Sunyani Liberation Barracks in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Awaribey, for the second time running, could not exercise his franchise because he could still not find his name in the register, according to Daniel Dayee.

He was not the only one who could not cast his vote; most of his men were also not able to do so because their names were missing.

Three of them who jokingly made unguarded statements found themselves in trouble as they were immediately locked up in guard room.

Policeman Wanted

Lance Corporal Kofi Peprah, a police officer stationed at Chereponi is wanted by the Northern Regional Police Command for allegedly disrupting the election process at the Tamale Central polling station, reports Eric Kombat. 

The timely intervention of other security personnel prevented electoral materials from being destroyed by the policemen whose names were not captured in the register.

The Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Ebenezer Tetteh, who confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said a complaint had been lodged at the Northern Regional Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

Source: Daily Guide