Personnel detailed to provide security during the 2024 general elections in the Jirapa constituency had vertually very little to do although they kept an eagle’s eye on the proceedings to ensure a smooth electoral process.
Personnel drawn from the Ghana Police, Fire and Immigration services were deployed in all polling centres to ensure an incident free electoral process and were seen patrolling the precincts of the polling centres with voters who had turned out to cast their vote giving them very little to do because of their orderly conduct.
A number of security officers “Jirapa FM” spoke to, confirmed this observation with some commending the general conduct of voters who had turned out to exercise their franchise.
A Fire Officer from the Jirapa Municipal Fire Station said this was the fourth elections he had been detailed to provide security and said this particular election was unique because previous ones had been fraught with infections such as attempted underaged voting, attempts by political parties to influence the process and several other offenses.
The presence of election observers notably CODEO and iDEG also lent credibility to the voting process.
One other striking out of the moon occurrence was the agents of the various political parties, notably the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress sitting together and policing the ballot, making it necessary to interrogate which party they represented because it was difficult differentiating them.
Isaac Kpienta polling officer for the Nyenvaar polling centre pointed out that everyone involved in the process knew their duties and is sticking to it, insuring a smooth process.
Hillary Konkuri the NDC’s polling agent detailed at the Sigri Catholic Church polling centre explained that the mutual relationship between the agents of all the parties is because they all come from the same community with some of them being relatives but owe allegiance to different parties.
He explained that the electoral process will take a day or two and they will still remain community members and go back to normal life so it would not be expedient to antagonize each other.
The conduct of the election was generally satisfactory with one minor challenge being some voters especially the aged facing difficulty in the verification process.
This was however resolved through manual verification.
