DAILY GRAPHIC, Friday, December 7, 2012, Center Spread (pg.24&25) Voters scramble for vehicles to destinations

Story: Mary Ankrah & Gloria Bamfo
A large number of prospective voters who sought to travel to their constituencies outside Accra yesterday to cast their ballots in today’s elections were confronted with challenges of no buses to convey them to their destinations.

As a result, some resorted to boarding cargo trucks in a desperate attempt to reach their destinations before voting day.

A visit to the Kaneshie, Tudu, Neoplan, Tema and VIP lorry stations, all in Accra, by the Daily Graphic saw long queues of stranded passengers, many of whom were visibly frustrated.

Some of those who were travelling to Kumasi and beyond said they had been in the queues since 4 a.m.
They explained that they could not leave Accra earlier because of other engagements, such as work and business.

“For three hours I stood in the queue and about six vehicles had come but I couldn’t get space in them. I wish I had travelled earlier, but my work didn’t allow me to,” Ali Kwame, a passenger at the Neoplan Station who was travelling to Assin Fosu, complained.

Another passenger, Ms Gladys Amponsah, who resorted to boarding a cargo truck to Kumasi for a fare of GHC10, said she registered to vote in Kumasi and had no choice but to travel there to cast her ballot.

She said if she had foreseen the difficulty, she would have made arrangements to vote in Accra.

“I can’t afford not to vote and that is why I have risked my life boarding a cargo vehicle, so that I can get to Kumasi where I can vote,” Mrs Amponsah said.

Officials at the lorry stations explained that some of the buses which had conveyed travellers to the other regions the previous day had failed to return, hence the acute shortage of buses.

According to them, some of the buses which left Accra on Tuesday to the regions were waiting to convey passengers back to Accra.

Nicolas Amos, a conductor at the Kaneshie Metro Mass Station, said the shortage of buses could also be attributed to the hiring of vehicles by politicians to transport voters to constituencies outside Accra to vote.

According to him, as of 10:10 a.m. yesterday only one bus had left Accra for Obuasi, but there were many passengers in the queue who had to travel to exercise their franchise today.

At the Ho Bus Station, although 25 buses had left as of 11 a.m., there were still many people waiting in a queue for their turns to buy tickets.

 The situation was not different at the Kpando, Somanya and Koforidua stations.

The illegal increases in fares which usually characterise acute shortages of buses were absent.

 According to the Ho Station Master, Mr Bernard Gegbe, the station was likely to be crowded for a long time, as many passengers preferred to travel after work.

A student of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Newton Kumi, said he was travelling all the way from Cape Coast to Kpando to vote because it was his right as a citizen of Ghana to vote.

He added that he would return to Cape Coast as soon as the voting was over.

Mr Kingston Dzeidzorm, also a passenger, said for him, travelling every four years to vote had become routine.