Voting has been suspended in Ghana's general elections in areas where biometric registration equipment have broken down after several voters were caught in long queues even after the official closure of voting at 5pm on Friday.
The process will resume on Saturday, according to a statement by the Electoral Commission. In polling stations where the equipment are working, voters who were in queues as at 5pm are to complete the process.
There were pockets of long queues in several polling stations, engendered in several places by either the breakdown or non-functioning of biometric verification machines or the late arrival of voting materials and officials.
Until the suspension, the main political parties had been expressing displeasure at the turn of events as several voters had allegedly been turned away because their eligibility could not be verified.
Counting of ballots however got underway across several polling stations nationwide after voting officially closed at 5pm.
At the Royal Primary School polling station in the Nyaniba Estates, which is part of the La Dadekotopon constituency, the National Democratic Congress won both the presidential and parliamentary elections. In the presidential race, President John Dramani Mahama polled 93 votes as against 70 by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party's 70 votes. Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom polled 1 (one) vote.
In the Parliamentary ballot, incumbent Nii Amasah Namoale of the NDC polled 90 votes as against Oscar Odoi of the NPP's 70, with the Progressive People's Party's candidate polling 4 (four) votes.