Assin North by-election : Voter turnout dwindles hours into election

The long queues that characterised the Assin North by-elections in the morning have fizzled out at most polling centres with no voters at all at some centres as at 12:20 hours. 

A visit to Assin Bereku and Assin Dansame saw varying queues as many were deserting the centres and others running for cover in response to an imminent rainfall.

At the DC JSS Two centre at Assin Dansame where 339 people were expected to cast their ballots, 211 had cast their ballots as at 11:13 with no voters around.

Eric Amo-Broni, the presiding officer said they were hoping more people would show up before the exercise ended at 17:00 hours.

At the DC JSS One in the same town, 218 of the 403 expected voters had successfully gone through the process with not more seven in the queue as at 13:09 hours.

“Since we started, this is the fewest number we have had at a time, Mr Sebastian Victor Amedzrator, the presiding officer, said adding that, “there have been no hitches at all.”

At the DC Primary School One polling centre, 118 of the 513 voters had cast their ballots at 13:00 hours with relatively more voters in the queue.

The situation at the DC Primary School Two polling centre was no different with 165 out of 427 voting by 13:03.

At Bereku, the district capital and epicentre of all the drama, the enthusiasm had equally subsided with just a handful of people in various queues.

Earlier, there were rumours of suspension of the exercise at Kushea due to violent clashes, which later turned out to be false upon further interrogations.