Blank ballots and duplicated serial numbers pop up during a special voting exercise at Adentan Constituency

Even though the special voting exercise organised by Ghana’s electoral management body, the Electoral Commission (EC) for various personnel who will be on duty during the presidential and parliamentary elections slated for December 7, 2024, went on smoothly, there were some few challenges that need to be addressed ahead of the general election.

At the Adentan Divisional Police Command where the special voting exercise for the Adentan Constituency took place, a worrying situation concerning the robustness and the integrity of the electoral system ahead of Saturday’s polls was put to test.

Some of the ballot booklets issued to one of the two polling centers were found to have contained blank sheets while another had a serial number duplicated.

This act brought about some serious arguments between the EC officials and political party agents as to whether the blank and duplicate ballot papers should be added to ballots issued or be destroyed when the Returning Officer, was filling the Statement of Polls and Declaration of Results Form know in the Ghanaian parlance as ‘Pink Sheet”.

However, cool heads prevailed at the end of the engagement with some executives of the various political parties and the EC officials thus ending the process smoothly.

Another shortfall in the system this reporter noticed during the special voting exercise was the missing names from the Special Voter list. Some security personnel were turned away since they couldn’t find their names on the register even though they claimed their names were sent to be part of the exercise.

One of the stranded security officers who were turned away in Adenta as his name is missing from the voters’ register speaking with the media after his ordeal said he personally checked his name on the EC’s portal and he was billed to vote on the 2^nd day of December 2024 at the Adenta Police station.

However, our checks revealed that most of the personnel after sending their names did not go to their constituency EC offices to confirm their names, according to officials from the commission it accounted for the lapses.

At the end of voting, at the Adenta Police Station, 1937 out of the expected 1202 voters representing 77% cast their votes in both presidential and parliamentary polls.

Speaking to the media, both parliamentary candidates for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Mohammed Abu Ramadan and the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Madam Akosua Manu were of high hopes to win the upcoming electoral battle.

Since its creation in 2004, the constituency’s electorate has consistently held its Members of Parliament (MPs) to high standards, expecting significant transformation and results within their four-year term.

This demand for accountability has led to an unusual trend—most MPs in Adentan serve only one term, a pattern that reflects the voters’ high expectations for their representatives.

But for the NDC’s Abu Ramadan the incumbent MP, who has been repeated to represent his party for the first time in the history of the constituency says he will surely maintain the Adentan seat for the NDC.

According to him, his work for the past four years speaks volumes and that is going to do the trick for him and his flagbearer, Mr. John Dramani Mahama.

For NPP’s Akosua Manu, a first-timer and relatively unknown in the constituency, she is banging her hopes on the performance of her government in the past eight years.

A little over 114,000 voters, excluding 17,000 from the Western and the Eastern regions, were expected to cast their ballots across the 276 constituencies nationwide yesterday.

Source: News Desk REPORT