A blind man, Abubakarr Conteh who voted at Constituency 101 ward 360, Wesleyan polling stations No. 14073, has said that he doubts if his conscience was voted.
He said an unknown man vowed to assist him since ‘I am blind I have no option but to accept the offer.’
Conteh said he doubted if the man was genuinely helping him or that he wanted to achieve his own goal, through him.
Questioned on how he went through the process taking into consideration his status, Abubakarr said the process was hectic adding that ‘I voted because it is my democratic right.’
He said ‘I preferred 2007, when we voted with tactile ballot without the need for anyone to aid us and all we did was to feel with our hands and voted according to our conscience.’
Conteh pleaded that blind people should be considered when planning other elections.
According to voters, ‘the voting procedure is rotten and NEC workers are unqualified.’
According to an old woman Fatmata Sesay, she arrived at the station at 4 AM and till 10 a.m she had not exercised her franchise adding that NEC is not organised because they stand in one centre on a long queue but as soon as they are inside the polling centre, the discover that their names are not in the register.
She said they then have to go out again and roam around to find their place to vote.
Sergeant Kargbo 4732 attached to the Kissy Police Post said 10 police officers were deployed at the centre at around 20.00 hours on the November 16th while people began to queue at the centre at around 3 AM.
He said those people who had arrived that early are still struggling to vote because the National Electoral Commission (NEC) officers had delayed.
He said when the people had settled themselves by 7:30, the NEC officials changed all the procedure from voters going in by serial numbers to alphabetical letters, adding that this was the other reason that did not allow the process to start at the stipulated time by NEC.
By Emmanuella Kallon
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