Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Dr. Ransford Gyampo has described late starting of voting as unacceptable and a disgrace to a democratic nation like Ghana.

According to him, Ghana has matured enough when it comes to democracy and for that matter must not tolerate late starting of polls.

 “Delayed voting is unacceptable and it’s about time we woke up as a nation in conducting elections” Dr. Gyampo stated.

Dr. Gyampo who is also a Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) was speaking Monday on Adom FM’s “Burning Issues” programme with Afia Pokua.

Voting in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential and parliamentary primary elections in the Ashanti Region and some regions got off to a late start due to the late arrival of voting materials – indelible ink, ballot papers, voting registers and transparent ballot boxes.

At most of the centres, polls started at around 10am, three clear hours after the stipulated time of 7am, a few of the polling stations however managed to start on schedule.

Apart from the recent one, the nation has over the years experienced late start of voting across the country.

But Dr. Gyampo said the trend is a disgrace.

 “It’s an indictment on us and officials who are responsible for such issues must be punished or be sacked from their positions because it’s not helping us at all,” he said.

He added that going forward, during the 2016 general elections, the EC must sit up to ensure that the issues of late starting of polls will be a thing of the past.

The state must not tolerate such late officials who cause the delays in any elections as far as our democracy is concern, he suggested.

Dr. Gyampo also called on the EC to map up strategies that will enhance delivering of voter materials to prevent such occurrences.