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During the Special Voting exercise in the Eastern Region, tensions erupted at the Koforidua Police Headquarters.
After refusing to leave the voting zone, Tijani Mikano, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) New Juaben South Organizer, got into a confrontation with security guards.
Only if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) official who was purportedly campaigning in the prohibited area was likewise removed, he contended, would he comply.
“We are to keep our distance from the voters, according to the EC’s guidelines. However, since the NPP is campaigning in line, I too chose to run with my team, but the EC says that’s not permitted. In order for the voters to cast their ballots, they should drive the others away if it is prohibited. He clarified the reason behind the occurrence.
Voters, security guards, and representatives of the Electoral Commission (EC) became involved as the situation continued to escalate into a tense confrontation.
He claimed the NDC executive was mislead into thinking the NPP agents had gone outside the boundary in an interview with Darlington Annan, the presiding officer.
He explained that the parties’ miscommunication stoked the conflict, even though the NPP person had been told to leave the line for making a nuisance.
The NPP representative recounted, “He [was] moving around and was asked to move from the queue because he was causing a nuisance to the voters. He was advised to leave the queue, but as he was going, the opponent thought he was interfering so they wanted to know what was happening and in the process, it escalated to a debate between them.”
Police officers and representatives of the Electoral Commission had to step in to clear up the confusion, according to Kofi Siaw, JoyNews’ Eastern Region correspondent.
According to him, they spoke with both sides and they left the area.
Now, he said, the place is peaceful again, and voting is still going on.
The Western Region’s voting process, meanwhile, has gone smoothly and peacefully, with few to no issues recorded.
Although 14 areas held extraordinary voting on Monday, the Electoral Commission recalled and ordered a reprinting of ballots in the Eastern and Western regions due to a mistake that was discovered with part of them, preventing them from casting ballots.
