The ongoing district assembly elections have been characterised by violence, assault and demonstrations in various parts of the country.

A polling agent at the Bimbisec polling centre in the Nanumba North District of the Northern Region was slapped by a voter when he tried to stop him from voting twice.

Joy News correspondent Haruna Yusif Wumpuni reports that Tahidu Aremeyaw stopped Adam Hanan from voting for his friend after he had cast his ballot.

But Adam did not find this funny. He demanded that he be allowed to vote and gave the polling agent a heavy slap for consistently barring him from voting again.

There was no security agent present at the polling station at the time the incident occurred.

In the Western Region, residents staged a protest against the elections.

The residents of Kansaworado in Sekondi-Takoradi are angered by the last-minute disqualification of one of the aspirants, which according to them, came with no tangible reason.

The aspiring assembly member, Nana Adjei is contesting three others, Mathew Kweku Adams, Atopetu Kobina and Emmanuel Ackon.

The residents are harassing voters who turn to cast their vote and burning car tyres at the polling centre.

Security officials from the rapid deployment force have been stationed at the polling station to bring the situation under control.

As of 11am, four hours after polls opened, only five people had been able to cast their vote.

Also, turn out at the various polling stations in the area is generally low but electoral officials were hopeful that things would improve before close of polls.

The situation is not different at the Kwabre East district in Ashanti Region.

Security officials there had to intervene to disperse angry voters who besieged the Assembly office following the suspension of voting at the Kenyasi West electoral area.

Joy News’ Erastus Asare Donkor was at the polling station and reported that EC officials had decided to suspend the polls because they noticed an anomaly on the ballot papers and needed to print new ones.

But the residents did not take kindly to this explanation.

According to some of the aspirants they have spent a lot of money to cook and prepare for the elections and do not understand why it should be postponed.

The security services have stepped in and calmed nerves.

At the West Mamprusi district in the Northern region, voting has been suspended as names, positions and pictures of candidates on the ballot papers have been misrepresented.

In the Upper East regional capital Bolgatanga the elections were put on hold because of heavy rains.

Correspondent Albert Sore reported that several polling stations sited under trees in the municipality have had to be relocated to prevent the destruction of electoral materials.

At 1pm, the rains subsided and voting resumed but Albert says turnout is extremely low.

Turnout across the country is so far, generally low. This has been attributed to the low publicity prior to the polls.