Several incidents, including bloody attacks, characterized the opening of the biometric voter registration exercise which started on Saturday. A bus with passengers was rained with bullets allegedly on the instruction of a District Chief Executive (DCE) at Akomadan in the Offinso North District of the Ashanti Region. In nearby Brong Ahafo Region, registration in two communities in the Asunafo South District was suspended following bloody incidents during the first day of the biometric registration exercise in the area. The Electoral Commission (EC) subsequently withdrew its field staff in the affected towns, Dantano and Nobekaw, where the violence broke out on Saturday morning. In the case of Akomadan, three people who travelled from Kumasi to register sustained varying degrees of injury when their bus was attacked, Daily Guide gathered. The driver of the Yutong bus with registration number GC 4910 Z, was also injured in the unprovoked attack and the injured were rushed to the hospital for treatment. Being native of the town known for its large-scale tomato production, but residing in Kumasi, the people decided to organise themselves and travel to their hometown, as they normally did, to register. Having arrived at about 10:00p.m on Friday and after many of the commuters had alighted, Daily Guide learnt that the bus was accosted by a Mahindra pickup vehicle with registration number, GR 260212 at Nkramun; a suburb of the town. After accosting them, occupants in the ash pickup vehicle belonging to the District Assembly, allegedly led by one Asare, the District NADMO co-ordinator, and Matardi, the driver of the District Chief Executive (DCE) Appiah Kubi, and other five machomen, started tiring shots at the bus. In view of this, the wind¬screen of the bus was damaged, with bullet marks, compelling the driver to stop, thereby giving the said people access to the vehicle. Once they got access to the bus, the macho men subjected to severe beatings, the three remaining persons on the bus and the driver, injuring them in the process. The New Patriotic Party’ (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Collins Ntim, who happened to be in town, according to sources, after receiving the information, rushed to the scene and took the injured persons to the hospital. It would be recalled that in the latter part of last year, a similar shooting incident occurred when confusion broke out between the MP and the DCE over the fixing of street lights in the town. The DCE, who contested the MP in the 2008 elections but lost, had been elected by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to again contest the forthcoming parliamentary polls on the ticket of the party. Because of this, checks conducted by the paper revealed that the acrimony between the DCE and the MP had heightened; therefore when information reached him that some people had been bused to come and register, he suspected the MP of having a hand in it and therefore allegedly organized men to attack them. Daily Guide learnt that more casualties would have been recorded had most or the occupants not alighted. The bus, the paper learnt, had been taken to the police station where an official report was lodged. A police source who had wanted to remain anonymous confirmed the incidence and indicated that investigations would be launched into it.