Confusion erupted at the Ashanti Region TESCON polling centre during the New Patriotic Party’s national delegates congress on Saturday, October 3, after some delegates failed to find their names on the Electoral Commission’s album. The issue left several delegates waiting to vote, sparking chants of “We are voting” as tensions rose.
The congress had begun around 6 p.m., and the disruption occurred about five and a half hours into the election. Police intervened to restore order at the polling area. According to JoyNews reporter Nana Yaw Gyimah, officers cordoned off the site and directed delegates back into queues while Electoral Commission officials worked to resolve the problem.
The National Coordinator of TESCON, the NPP’s student wing, dismissed reports that the album containing the Ashanti Region delegates’ names was missing. He explained that the region has 50 TESCON institutions, with their representatives expected to vote at three designated polling centres labelled A, B, and C.
The coordinator said the confusion arose because some delegates initially went to the wrong polling centre and could not find their names before eventually locating them at the correct centre. “There is no issue. The whole TESCON album for the country, you know, they are all supposed to vote in their various regions. So Asante region has 50 TESCON institutions. But our polling centres were three, A, B, C. So as to where exactly they were supposed to vote was the issue. They went to A and then they didn’t find their names. They came to B and they didn’t find their names and came to C to see their names. And now they are voting. That was the only challenge. And it’s been resolved that they are voting now,” he said.
When asked whether the album was missing, he replied, “No, no, no. That’s never the case. It’s been here since morning.” He added that all 50 TESCON representatives from institutions in the Ashanti Region were captured on the EC’s sub-album and would be allowed to vote. “As I’m talking to you, you can see the voting processes have started. None of them will be disenfranchised. All the 50 people here, their names are captured on the EC sub-album. That is how come they’ve been allowed to be here,” he said.
Police restored calm, and voting resumed at the TESCON centres. Elsewhere, some polling centres had completed voting and begun counting ballots.
The incident exposed logistical challenges within the regional TESCON voting process at the NPP congress, which featured a complex system dividing delegates across multiple polling points. The confusion over polling centre assignments delayed voting for several hours but did not result in any reported disenfranchisement.
The situation raised questions about the management of delegate registration and the Electoral Commission’s coordination with party structures. Despite the disruption, the electoral process proceeded into the night with police maintaining order and officials attending to remaining delegates.
According to Joy Online.
