Friday, August 1, 2008

TURNOUT WAS HIGH ,,,Skirmishes at few centres (LEAD STORY)

AN impressive turnout, torrential rains and pockets of disturbances heralded the reopening of the national voters register for the 2008 general election yesterday. The 11-day exercise will end on August 10, 2008.
In Tamale, a party agent was attacked by a band of youth for allegedly protesting against the registration of persons alleged to be minors.
The incident occurred at the Kalpohini Low Cost Seventh-Day Adventist Junior High School registration centre, leading to the abrupt end of the exercise as registration officials fled for their lives.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Northern Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Sylvester Kanyi, said around 10:00 a.m. a group of young females went to register but a party agent protested and asked the girls to produce their birth certificates.
“Moments later, a group of young men attacked the party agent and he fell unconscious. But we have reported the matter to the police,” the director indicated.
However, the exercise began smoothly at the other registration centres visited in the Tamale metropolis.
As of 1:30 p.m. 200 people had registered at the Queen Elizabeth, Changli-Dohinayili, Kanvili Roman Catholic Primary School, Jisonayili Primary, Bishop’s and Bagabaga Demonstration Junior High school centres.
Some residents, however, complained of their inability to locate the registration centres.
Edward Turkson reports from Adabraka in Accra that confusion broke out at the Additrom Junior High School registration centre when a man who claimed to be a New Patriotic Party (NPP) official challenged the nationality of some of the people who were trying to register.
The NPP official, whose name was only given as Osagyefo, was said to have angrily confronted some people in the queue, disrupting the registration process for almost an hour before police reinforcement was called in to restore peace at the centre.
The Electoral Officer of the Osu Klottey Electoral Area, Mr Clement Kwame Adonae, told the Daily Graphic that Osagyefo overpowered the police officer in charge at the centre, attracting an angry mob to the centre.
He said during the uproar, other NPP officials came to query him as to why he was not taking control of the situation at hand and that escalated the disruption at the centre.
According to him, under no circumstance should party officials who had not been assigned to centres interfere with proceedings at those centres, noting that the incident undermined the work of party agents assigned to the centres.
“Osagyefo was just moving up and down the queue, pointing and shouting at people he claimed were not qualified to register,” Mr Adonae stated, noting that the presence of officials who were not assigned to centres created a lot of tension among those registering.
He called for the presence of two or more police officers, instead of one, at the centre.
Donald Ato Dapatem also reports that the exercise began with impressive turnouts at most of the centres in the Accra metropolis, in spite of the late start.
At some of the centres the Daily Graphic visited, although the exercise started after 8.45 a.m., instead of the statutory 7.00 a.m., eligible voters in queues yearning to get their names in the register numbered between 50 and 150.
The exercise is meant to register Ghanaians of sound mind who have attained 18 and others who, for various reasons, have not had the opportunity to register.
A problem that potential voters faced was the difficulty in locating the centres as a result of the low publicity given of the locations or insufficient directions to guide people to the centres.
Unlike general registration exercises where people register at all polling stations, the current registration has been limited to only electoral areas, some of which comprise 10 polling stations.
At the Nima Dunia Cinema registration centre, there was a near clash among agents of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and some of the over 150 youth who had formed a long queue waiting for their turn.
This was due to the fact that the agents of both parties felt that some of those registering were either below 18 or were not from the area.
In most cases, they failed to use the proper procedure to protest and resorted to heckling.
That made Mr William Klatsi, the Registration Officer, to suspend the registration for some time. That notwithstanding, 20 people had registered as of 2:35 p.m.
At IBE in New Mamprobi, 30 people had registered around 11.55 a.m., while about 50 enthusiastic youth were waiting for their turn.
According to the Registration Officer, Mr Theophilus Tetteh, most of the people who registered were those who had just attained 18, "but for those who are older we subject them to thorough interrogation and also make them aware that if they were caught registering more than once, they would be prosecuted".
At the Chorkor Presbyterian Primary School registration centre, 126 people had gathered in a queue, with 37 of them having received their voters identity cards as of 12:15 p.m.
The Presiding Officer, Mr Evans Allotey, said as a result of the heavy downpour, the team had to start work at 8:15 a.m.
He said there had been no incident and attributed the high turnout to the effective publicity mounted by the EC.
By 12:50 p.m. the Korle Bu centre had registered 20 people, mostly the youth, while at the Ablekuma District EC Office, 46 people had received their voters identity cards, with others waiting for their turn.
From Kumasi, Nana Yaw Barimah and Enoch Darfah Frimpong report that the exercise was favourably patronised at all the centres the Daily Graphic visited.
There were people waiting patiently in queues at all the centres visited between 12 noon and 2:30 p.m.
With the exception of the Kwadaso Sub-metro centre, where the aspiring NDC MP, Mr Joseph Yammin, expressed concern over some minors attempting to register, the entire exercise was smooth.
Mr Yammin challenged the eligibility of some people whom he perceived to be minors and said he would take it up for them to prove their eligibility if they went ahead to register.
Apart from the NPP and the NDC which had their agents at the centres to monitor the process, the other parties had no representatives at any of the centres visited.
The South Suntreso centre in the Nhyiaso Constituency had registered 32 people, including 20 males and 12 females, as of 12 noon. while the Police Depot centre had registered 60 people by 12:30 p.m.
The State Housing Company centre at North Suntreso had registered 85 people by 1:30 p.m., while the Adum Presby centre had registered 52 people by 2:16 p.m.
In various interviews, some people said they woke up early to participate in the exercise, which they described as very important.
They said they wanted to register to enable them to exercise their franchise and furthermore use their ID cards for other identification activities such as banking transactions.
The cameras were working perfectly, while the registration officers were working assiduously to ensure the successful execution of the exercise.
At Asante-Mampong, the NPP parliamentary aspirant, Mr Francis Addai-Nimoh, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise had been going on smoothly in all the 13 registration centres.
However, he said at the Daaho and Yonso registration centres the cameras had not been functioning and added that he had drawn the attention of the returning officers to that.
The returning officers gave the assurance that the issue had been reported to the municipal electoral officer, who had promised to correct the anomaly.
From Takoradi, Kwame Asiedu Marfo reports that potential voters experienced initial frustrations as they found it difficult to locate the registration centres in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis.
When the Daily Graphic went round the Effia Kuma Newsite, Takoradi Central Police Station, Bethel Methodist School and the Takoradi Central Market areas to find out how people were responding to the exercise, not a single registration centre could be located, although there were posters with the inscription, “Revision of the voters register. Registration centre there”.
The Deputy Western Regional Director of the EC, Mr George Gyabaah, told the Daily Graphic that besides the publication of the registration centres in the national dailies, district electoral officers would use their public education vans to inform the people as to where and the number of days the registration would go on in an electoral area, since two electoral areas would have one registration centre.
He said there were 226 registration centres in the Western Region and that between 80,000 and 100,000 new voters were expected to be registered in the region.
Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah reports from Sunyani that the turnout at some of the designated centres for the exercise in the Sunyani municipality was not encouraging as of 9.00 a.m. when the Daily Graphic set out on its rounds.
At the Ahenboboano Electoral Area, only 12 people had registered, according to the registration officer, Mr Soale Mohammed, who indicated, however, that the process had been very smooth.
He said the same officials at the centre were responsible for the Wawasua area, where they would move after serving at Ahenboboano for four days.
Mr Soale said some of the people who turned up at the centre rather went there to report of their lost voters identification cards.
At the Atoase Electoral Area, the officer in charge, Madam Doris Jawula, said five persons had shown up to register.
Only the NPP and the NDC had representatives monitoring the exercise at the centres visited.

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