The norm would have been that long queues of voters, and objects such as stones, chairs and gallons representing voters, would have formed overnight as anxious voters desiring to cast their ballots early in the day forgo sleep.

The stones and gallons would represent voters in the queues who want to attend to some other business and would have secured their turns with the acknowledgement of ‘neighbours’ in the queue.

This is in spite of the labelling of this year’s election as a ‘high stakes’ election, whatever that means.

Bawumia in Walewale, Mahama in Bole

Vice President and presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, arrived in his hometown of Walewale, in the North East Region Friday night.

The Vice President votes in Kperiga, a suburb of Walewale, and he is expected to cast his ballot there when polls open.

Dr. Bawumia is on the ballot for the first time, on the ticket of the NPP, and he is seeking to be elected President, having been Vice President to President Akufo-Addo in the past eight years.

Similarly former President John Dramani Mahama, presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress, arrived at his home base of Bole-Bamboi constituency in the Savannah Region on Friday to cast his vote, confident of victory.

Bole-Bamboi holds significant personal and political value for Mr Mahama, as he previously served as the constituency’s Member of Parliament before ascending to the roles of Vice President and President of Ghana.

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The EC’s plan aims to limit the number of voters per polling station to 500. Jean Mensa, the chairperson of the EC, disclosed this information during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) forum in Accra on Thursday, December 14.

The move to create more polling stations is intended to alleviate congestion at voting centres.

Additionally, the EC hinted at considering a shift in the voting closing time from 5:00 pm to 3:00 pm for the upcoming 2024 general elections.

“In 2020, 70 per cent of our polling centres had a voter threshold of 500 and below. This time we intend to ensure that all our polling station centres have a threshold of 500 voters and below. In the same vein, we will increase the number of our polling stations nationwide.

“We believe that this will go a long way to reduce the long queues that characterise our elections and allow for a smooth, seamless, hassle-free voting process. In 2020, it took voters not more than five minutes to cast their votes due to the introduction of this policy. Based on our 2020 experience and also feedback from several observer groups, we propose to close the polls at 3:00 pm,” she explained.

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