Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has expressed worry over the hitches recorded during Ghana’s first partial biometric voting exercise. There have been widespread reports of machine failures, late arrival of electoral materials and absenteeism of electoral officers. The former President, who in 2010 led a team of African Union observers to monitor Nigeria’s biometric election, says Ghana could have “taken a leaf” out of the book of Nigeria. “Our chair of the Electoral Commission was there. Perhaps he could have taken a leaf from Nigeria in this respect but I’m not seeing it,” Mr Kufuor told reporters after voting in the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency. “The whole of Nigeria put a ban on vehicular movement on the election day and then the accreditation was done before 12:00pm for everyone who wanted to vote. At 12:00pm the gates were shut, anyone who hadn’t come to be accredited wasn’t allowed to vote.” Not verified There have also been situations where names in the biometric register could not be verified by the biometric machine. With the Electoral Commission’s directive of “no verification, no vote” those whose identities could not be verified may just have to go home disenfranchised. At the Will of God polling station in the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, out of the twenty people who had been screened as at 7:55 GMT, three could not be verified. At the time Joy News was leaving the centre, technical men from the EC had yet to arrive to deal with the problem.