Delayed ballot papers characterizes Bolgatanga NDC election

The delay in the printing of ballot papers for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Constituency election in the Bolgatanga Central Constituency has affected the start of the process.

As at 1300hours when the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the polling station, delegates, aspirants, and party sympathisers were seated in groups and chatting among themselves, while aspirants took the opportunity to campaign.
The GNA observed that though the entire voting hall was set and ready for the exercise to commence, the Electoral Commission (EC) officials were seated and waiting to receive the ballot papers.

When the ballots arrived at about 1430hours, the EC officials started sorting them out for voting to begin.
Mr Donatus Nyaaba, the Regional Director of Elections, NDC, said a delay in the printing of the ballot papers had delayed the whole process.

He said the problem was not peculiar to only the Bolgatanga Central Constituency and that the Chiana-Paga Constituency in the Kassena-Nankana West District was also affected.

Mr Roland Atanga Ayoo, the incumbent Constituency Secretary, who is seeking re-election, told the GNA that “pockets of information I have gathered suggest that the printers were not paid in full, and that has delayed the printing.”
He said delegates and aspirants were anxious as they were unduly delayed.

Mr Ayoo said: “They were here as early as 0800hours and are not very impressed about the situation. The anxiety level is very high.”

He added that despite the delay, the outcome of the election would not be affected even though it would be stressful.
“An election that would have ended very early is likely to travel into the night and would cause a lot of stress to many people.”

The aspirant appealed to delegates to continue to exercise patience and was hopeful that by the close of day, the election would be conducted.

As at the time of filing this report, sorting was still on-going with heavy police presence.