Security officials who were unable to vote in Tuesday’s special voting exercise because their names did not appear in the voters’ register will only be allowed to vote on December 7 according to Electoral Commission (EC) Principal Public Relations Officer Sylvia Annor. Special voting by security and electoral officials as well as other essential workers who will be on duty this Friday has been going on at about 275 polling stations across the country with 41 in Accra alone. However, scores of security personnel who started queuing as early as 5am could not locate their names at the centres where they went to vote and where EC officials have borne the brunt of their frustrations. However, in an interview with Joy News, Madam Annor tried to absolve the EC of any blame. She explained that the challenges were as a result of the personnels’ failure to submit their ID numbers alongside their names when they were asked to do so. Their names were probably removed from the list because it was “difficult to trace their ID numbers,” she said. Voting is being conducted on a constituency basis, she said, and she suspects that those who could not find their names might have gone to the wrong constituencies to vote. “If you register in a particular constituency you need to be there to vote,” she explained, pointing out that some people have even moved from one region to the another hoping to cast their votes there, which is not possible. “If you did your registration in Bunkpurugu Yunyoo, you cannot vote in Tema West because that is not where you did your registration. They are supposed to vote at where they did their registration.” Some members of the public have entertained fears that it would be a strain on security personnel to man the polls on December 7 if the EC does not establish the means to enable them to vote first. “We are doing early voting today, now, apart from today, we can only vote on 7th December … if the name is not in the voter’s register because the person registered somewhere else, there is very little we can do about the situation,” insisted Mrs. Annor. Meanwhile, Joy News correspondents across the country report that aside from scattered stories of people not listed in registers, the exercise has gone smoothly. Mrs. Annor also laid to rest claims that persons who misplace their voter ID cards would not be able to vote on Friday. She assured the electorate that once a person’s name has been captured in the EC’s system during the exhibition exercise, that person can vote.