CALM has returned to all the 27 electoral areas in the Tamale metropolis where three centres were closed down last Saturday, as a result of intimidation and other electoral disturbances.
According to the Northern Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Sylvester Kanyi, registration is currently going on smoothly at all the centres and the Commission had no intention of extending the closing date for the exercise in the metropolis.
Mr Kanyi and representatives of the various political parties were chased out of some registration centres, including the Zogbeli JSS and the United Primary School at Moshie-Zongo, which stalled the registration exercise in Tamale last Saturday.
‘‘At the moment, we have not suspended the exercise in any part of the metropolis and registration is on-going at all the centres in the area,’’ he stated.
Commercial activities are also going on as usual with the respective financial institutions busily transacting business with customers while traders at the various market centres busily sell their wares.
The registration exercise, which began nationwide last Thursday, was nearly marred at some centres in the metropolis, following reports of accusations and counter-accusations of registration of minors between members by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The misunderstanding between the two parties followed reports of alleged assault, intimidation and firing of warning shots at some of the centres.
At the United Primary registration centre last Friday, some unidentified persons in a pick-up fired warning shots at the centre and made away with the registration materials, including the forms.
After that, Mr Kanyi and representatives of the various political parties in the metropolis were chased out of the Zogbeli JSS registration centre during a routine check there.
In the process, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Mr Inusah Fuseini, was manhandled, while the vehicle carrying him was pelted with stones.
A saloon car belonging to a regional executive member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) also had its window screen damaged.
In Accra, Musah Yahaya Jafaru reports that anxious youth in parts of Accra who wish to get their names on the voters register have expressed their frustration at the shifting of registration centres from one electoral area to the other.
They said the practice was responsible for the long queues at the various registration centres in Accra in the ongoing revision of the voters register.
“The reason is that people who are anxious to register but cannot do so in their electoral areas follow up the registration exercise outside their electoral areas,” one young man told the Daily Graphic at Adabraka yesterday.
At some registration centres, the registration officers refused to register persons who moved outside their electoral areas, insisting on their house numbers and witnesses to testify that they were resident in the respective areas.
However, other registration officers who did not want to incur the ‘wrath’ of party agents, had stopped challenging the residential status of the people.
When the Daily Graphic team visited other registration centres yesterday, people, numbering between 200 and 300, were standing in long queues as of 3 pm. The registration centres included the Dunia Cinema registration centre in Nima West, the Old GNTC registration centre for residents of Kanda Estate and Kanda Ruga, both in the East Ayawaso Constituency, the Accra Technical Training Centre in the Ayawaso Central Constituency, and the Salem Secondary registration centre and Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) registration centre, both in the Osu Klottey Constituency.
Some of the anxious people tried to jump the queue, resulting in some disturbances. The police had to be called in to restore order at those registration centres.
At YWCA and Salem Secondary School registration centres, some of the people in queues had to be locked outside the main gates, and ushered in turns.
Some people claimed that they had been in the queues since 4 a.m.
The Electoral Officer of the Old GNTC registration centre, Mr Yakubu Bukari, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise was meant for the Kanda Estate and Ruga area, but residents of the Nima East also had gone there to register.
That, he said, increased the number of the people in the queue and complicated the registration exercise as the officers were given additional task of sorting out true residents.
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