Nothern Police picks signals of minor voting
The Northern Regional Police Command had picked early warning signals indicating that minors exercising their franchise during the December 7 General Election is likely to spark conflict.
The command has therefore warned the political parties to prevail upon their supporters who are minors to desist from voting to ensure incident free presidential and parliamentary polls.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) George Tuffour, Regional Police Commander who made this known to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Tuesday, said investigations had revealed that some of the political parties convinced a lot of minors to patronise the Biometric Voter Registration exercise in anticipation of increasing their voter population.
“It is fearful that the trend is likely to turn into violent confrontations during the elections,” he said.
DCOP Tufuor said although the police got wind of the anomaly it was unable to act because it was not mandated to determine the age of voters.
The command held an emergency meeting with the political parties over the defacing of party paraphernalia.
DCOP Tufuor said the meeting was among the series planned to engage the parties to resolve all electoral disagreements.
Touching on the preparedness of the police towards the upcoming elections, he gave the assurance that the personnel are battle ready.
The service would deploy personnel to the 2,423 polling stations out of which 736 had been identified as flash points.
DCOP Tufuor said: “More personnel are expected from Head Quarters to fill in the gap.”
He said the police have also taken delivery of equipment to ensure effective communication on security concerns.
He said the Regional Police Operation room had been equipped with the necessary facilities to ease communication and security operations.
DCOP Tufuor said sub-committees of the Regional Security Taskforce to be deployed on the eve of the elections have been inaugurated to monitor the effectiveness or otherwise of the polls.
The Police Commander said the police had established good relationship with the Electoral Commission and other sister agencies to collaborate effectively for peaceful polls.
He said with the advent of the biometric registration, he expressed the hope that the elections would be free, fair and peaceful.
Source: GNA