Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe

The Electoral Commission (EC) has disclosed that provisional figures show an 88 per cent voter turnout at Tuesday’s Special Voting exercise.

This means about 12 per cent of those who applied to vote have lost their right to exercise their franchise in this year’s election.

A total of 109,557 persons, made up of security persons, media and staff of the EC, applied to take part in the exercise carried out by the EC in all 275 constituencies in the country.

Speaking on the AM Show on Wednesday, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, said the Commission had hoped to achieve their 100 percent turnout target.

“We would have been happy if everybody who applied had voted. The challenge is that if your name appeared in the Special Voters’ list, and you did not vote yesterday, it means you have lost your right to vote for 2020,” he said.

Dr Quaicoe also disclosed that EC officials, whose names were not included in Tuesday’s Special Voting, will be able to vote on December 7 along with the rest of the citizens.

These EC officials, he said, will be assigned to the polling stations where they registered to vote or in close proximity to those polling centres so that they are not disenfranchised.

Following the arrest of two voters, believed to have taken photos of their ballot papers yesterday after voting, Dr Quaicoe asked that they be given “custodial sentences before the December 7 exercise to serve as a warning to others.”

The incident occurred at the Kpeshie Divisional Headquarters in the Krowor Constituency on Tuesday.