Some voters going through the process
Due to the several curses pronounced on the Nkoranza District level election in 2016, many people in the area failed to turn up for the district level election that took place yesterday, for fear of the gods striking them to death.
The elections, which were held last year throughout the country, precluded the Nkoranza district because some aggrieved customers of micro finance companies who had their investments locked, invoked curses on the electoral commission and prevented it from organizing the poll in that district.
As a result, both Nkoranza North and South Assemblies had not had functioning assemblies since then.
The Electoral Commission therefore set yesterday for the holding of the election in both districts. In all, 70 candidates contested for 29 seats in the Nkoranza South District Assembly whilst 60 contested for 26 seats in the North.
The district returning officer for Nkoranza South, Ekow Essien, told DAILY GUIDE that the process was smooth, except that there was low turnout because people still feared the curses that were invoked on them, though they had been reversed. He also said because yesterday was a market day a lot of people had gone to the market.
However, some residents attributed the low turnout to low publicity, apart from the market factor.
As at 11:52 when DAILY GUIDE got to the Adinkra-Akyi L/A JHS A polling station, 24 voters had cast their votes out of a total registered voters of 386. At L/A JHS Upper Kissiman, as at 12 noon, 60 people had cast their votes out of 468.
The Presiding Officer, Eric Allotey, said the process was smooth. He said a lot of voters rushed to cast their ballots in the morning but getting to the afternoon the number reduced.
The Member of Parliament for Nkoranza South, Charles Konadu-Yiadom, who cast his vote at Estate Presby Electoral Area, bemoaned the low publicity given to the exercise by the EC, saying it was a major factor for the low turnout.
From Daniel Y Dayee, Nkoranza
danielyaodayeehyahoo.com