It’s Wednesday 7th December 2016, Election Day in Ghana. This is the day that the waakye, Hausa Kojo and other breakfast queues are transferred to polling stations and last till the evening.
I hate the sight of queues, even worse is standing in them but I love Ghana more. That means doing something I hate in an effort to make a difference.
Voting started at 7 AM. Its 8 AM and I am in the N-Z first name queue and it’s five times longer than the English alphabet. My polling station is the PHASE 1, REGIMANUEL ESTATE EAST AIRPORT (C120320B).
Please note you need stand in the queue that corresponds to the first letter in your first name. In my polling station there is no indication of this. I had to ask to know this. Don’t go standing in the wrong queue.
So far things look organized and for the past 20 minutes I have been at the same place, which makes me wonder as to whether it’s the voters or the voting officials that are slowing the process down.
Already amongst voters, commentary has begun. Talk of inefficient procedures, long lines and the like. A lady just passed me by with a camp chair and I am so envious.
This being my first time participating in this national exercise I feel I should have been advised on some things to bring along with me to make the process more bearable.
If you have not left home to vote try carrying the following along:
- Your voters ID or identification document to enable you to vote.
- A camp chair or any item to sit on
- A cap, straw hat or anything to give shade. An umbrella is not a bad idea.
- Sunglasses – this is optional but it helps.
- A face towel
- A fan or anything to fan with
Well it looks like I am going to be here for a while. I hear it is estimated that each voter will use 2 minutes to vote. There are about 60 people in front of me so my math tells me that I will be voting in the next two hours. I hope this is an exaggeration.
It’s sad but just in my queue I have seen voters drink satchet water and litter their very surroundings. With attitudes like this how do we develop our country? This day will cause a shift but we have a long way to go to develop our GHANA to better standards.
Remember to keep the peace as you vote and keep it One Hondred!
This is my second to vote at the corpus Christie Community 18 polling station but to say the least, its still hell trying to cast a vote in Ghana. At least, things should have improved – no shade,no seats, not but ns etc. Ghanaians should change our attitudes and we will be able to make Ghana a prosperous country…
I think there should be more polling booths. People could volunteer to help.