NPP, NDC agents trade blows over police recruits

The special voting exercise at Bolgatanga Central in the Upper East region turned fisticuffs over whether police recruits should be allowed to vote in the constituency.

According to the New Patriotic Party, the recruits are not qualified to vote as special voters per the list that was earlier given to them by the Electoral Commission.

The party said the list they had for the constituency had only 777 people who are eligible to vote there, but only for a new list to be sprang on them with 1,480 names, which included the police recruits.

The New Patriotic Party therefore insisted that they would not allow the recruits to exercise their franchise, but the National Democratic Congress would not allow the NPP to have their way.

This generated heated argument between the NPP and NDC agents there who decided to resolve the issue through the exchange of blows.

It took the intervention of the security personnel around to separate them, 3news.com’s Upper East correspondent Rabiu Tanko Mohammed reported. He said the confusion brought the voting exercise to a halt albeit temporarily.

The NPP parliamentary candidate, Rex Asanga told Onua FM’s Yen Nsempa morning show that the recruits were bussed into the constituency. He wondered why the recruits were not made to vote in Talensi where their training school is located.

Over 120,000 media, EC officials and police personnel are voting today across the nation ahead of the general elections on December 7, 2016 to elect 275 Members of Parliament and a president.