Chaos erupted at the Akurem Junior High School(JHS) polling station in the Asawase constituency of the Ashanti region in the ongoing 2024 election.
Earlier reports suggested the chaos was over the the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) candidate, Manaf Ibrahim’s decision not to skip the queue to cast his vote.
But in an interview with Joy News, Manaf Ibrahim clarified that it was over a National Democratic Congress(NDC) man who was engaging voters in the queue.
He explained that the NDC member had requested that security officers compel him[Manaf] to skip the queue to cast his vote and leave the polling station.
However, upon sighting the NDC man with the voters register while engaging the voters, Manaf said he also asked the security personnel to sack him if he was not an agent.
“Well I want to be in the queue and they didn’t give me that privilege so once that’s the rule without exception. In the electoral guidelines, they didn’t say as a candidate you jump the queue.
“What actually happened was that there was an NDC guy with the register in the queue talking to voters and I didn’t mind him but he told the security officer on duty to tell me to skip the queue to vote and go. So I raised the concerns that if he is not an agent, then he shouldn’t be in the queue talking to voters so they should take me off the queue or I will. So the confusion had nothing to do with me,” he explained.
On why he chose to join the queue with other voters, he said that has been his routine.
“I have always voted here. This is my fourth time voting in this polling station and not for once have I ever skipped the queue. I live just about 120 metres from here and I always join the queue,” he added.
Meanwhile, calm has been restored following the swift intervention of security personnel.
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