The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has observed that for an election which started seven hours late in some polling stations, the EC has a duty to ensure that all qualified voters willing and able to vote are facilitated to cast their votes. With polling slated to close at 5pm, hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians remain stranded in long queues all over the country. The NPP demands that these patriotic Ghanaians are enabled to vote as per the EC instruction that once a person is in a queue at 5pm, that person must be allowed to vote. The NPP is even more worried that in many places all over the ocuntry, the Verification Machines have broken down. Voters are waiting without any information or technical attention. We demand that the EC put all the technical capacity and spare Verification Machines at its command into the field to ensure that the election ends well. This election is based on only one standard. NO VERIFICATION NO VOTE. No party will accept manual verification after the fact in the field and where results are purportedly reported without verification, such results should be rejected outright. Hence it is a legitimate and necessary demand that EC deliver verification machines that function if the election is to be deemed up to the EC’s own standard. . Late voting and counting makes electrical energy essential. VRA, GRIDCo and ECG promised the entire country power but large pockets of the country remain in the dark. Moreover, we do not have any guarantees that the lights will stay on for the counting phase of the election. It is vital that there is electricity because the understanding is that three thousand vigilantes have been mobilised to disrupt the process in the dark. ALSO, SOME ELECTORAL OFFICERS ARE THREATENING to take boxes away to count elsewhere. Please, all counting and declaration is done at the polling station in the full glare of the public. All polling station agents should not allow or accept the transportation of ballot boxes anywhere by anybody until after counting and signature of the relevant documentation. The EC must warn its officers not to count the uncompleted ballot where people are still in the queue waiting for a verification machine. The NPP believes the election is capable of passing of fairly and freely if the EC and the ECG live up to their responsibilities to Ghana. ......signed...... Yaw Buaben Asamoa NPP Deputy Communications Director