AS voting kicked off on Monday in Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections, John Mahama, frontline presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress, NDC has decried the glitches that disenfranchised voters in various polling units.
Speaking to journalists after casting his vote in the Northern Region, Mahama said some voters names were removed from the register and as a result were disenfranchised.
Mahama disclosed that one of his security detail and a lady at his polling station were unable to vote saying the incident vindicates the NDC for kicking against the Electoral Commission’s decision to compile a new voters’ register.
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“These are some of the little things we kept complaining about. I mean the EC said it has eliminated 30,000 names, without saying whose names they were.
“So now, we stand vindicated because these are issues we were warning the EC about, that on the day the verification machines might not work because they failed to deploy and test them during the exhibition,” he said.
The race is expected to be a close race between incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo, 76, of the New Patriotic Party NPP, and John Mahama, 62, of the NDC.
After signing a symbolic peace pact last week Friday, a move expected to signal peaceful co-existence between both candidates in spite of the outcome of the elections.
This is the third-time they are sparing against each other in an election as Ghana has had five presidents since 1992 and three hand-overs of power.
However, Mahama is optimistic that the whole electoral process will be carried out smoothly, devoid of violence and intimidation.
“I hope that the atmosphere we saw here will be the same everywhere in the country and if that happens that means voting will go smoothly and I hope that the same applies to the counting and collation,” he said.
Voters are expected to cast their ballots for a new president and members of parliament for 275 constituencies between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm across 38,000 polling stations in the country.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.