The Electoral Commission (EC) has given the strongest assurance yet that it is on course to deliver a more inclusive and transparent process in the collation and declaration of the November 7 presidential and parliamentary election results.
According to the election management body, there is a lot of integrity, transparency and inclusiveness in the entire electoral process and so there is the need for total support from all Ghanaians, especially stakeholders in the elections, to make this year’s elections a resounding success.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra last Monday, the Chairman of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, called for the nation’s support and citizens’ confidence in the entire electoral process because “the commission is committed to organising the best of elections, come November”.
Mrs Osei spoke about what the EC was doing from this period up to the November 7 elections and also shared her brief impressions on the ongoing voters register exhibition and the re-registration of voters whose names had been deleted from the register because they used NHIS cards to register.
Key reforms
As part of key electoral reforms, the exhibition exercise has been extended from the usual 10 to 14 days to 21 days for a good number of reasons.
Among other reasons, it will give longer time for eligible voters to check and confirm for themselves that their details are captured in the revised register.
More importantly, the exhibition exercise is utilising biometric verification devices (BVDs) which will be used to verify every registered voter who visits every centre.
Indeed, the extended duration will also ensure that voters get to know their polling stations as the EC has increased the number of polling stations.
Another crucial element in the reforms introduced by the EC is the fact that the number of polling stations created have been expanded from 26,000 to 29,000 to make it easier for voters to get to polling centres near them. The additional polling stations would also reduce the pressure exerted on the BVDs and election officials during the election and make the voting process faster.
It will be recalled that in the 2012 polls, there were a lot of challenges with the BVDs.
Advice
Apart from the BVDs being used to verify the identity of registered voters, Mrs Osei pointed out that it would also afford the EC and its officials the opportunity to have a fair sense to determine the number of people who might face challenges having their identities verified by the devices and for which reason they would require manual verification.
“It is, therefore, highly imperative that persons who are re-registering due to the deletion of their names from the register because of the use of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card get to do their re-registration as early as possible.
“Beyond all these, the process can be enhanced if registered voters do not wait till the last moment to rush to the centres to check their details. The earlier they do so, the better, in order to forestall any undesirable incidents that may not augur well for the electoral process,” she stated.
Mrs Osei, therefore, called for active participation in the current voters register exhibition, as well as the re-registration of all those whose names had been deleted from the register because they had registered with NHIS card.
‘So far EC on course’
“So far, we are on course to deliver,” Mrs Osei gave the assurance, and disclosed that by the first week of September this year the commission hoped to come out with the finalised register.
Under the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) for the conduct of this year’s elections, she further assured that all certified political parties would get the final register prior to the elections, and the election results would be published on a polling station basis to enhance the integrity of the entire electoral process.
Further, she disclosed that at the Constituency Collation Centres, election results would be projected publicly.
On logistics, the EC Chair pointed out that “procurement of election materials for the 2016 polls have been concluded”.
Nov 7 on track
On whether the 2016 polls would be organised on November 7 or December 7, Mrs Osei said: “We have all along planned and worked with the November 7, 2016 date in mind. That is the recommendation from the political parties and other stakeholders on the EC Reform Committee post the 2012 elections.
She added, however, that the decision on the date was subject to the pleasure of Parliament and the Commission would abide by whatever date Parliament decided upon.
“We are currently doing the re-registration of NHIS card registrants and the revised voters register exhibition. Once we are done, then it is the actual elections,” she explained.
Political parties
Touching on what the EC was doing to bring all stakeholders on the same page with the commission, she said: “As a commission, we have extensive engagements with political parties and we will enhance our outreach programmes to the general public.
“We have begun rolling out our programmes towards the 2016 polls and have launched our short code 6363 for voters to check their registration status by texting their voters ID number.
“We are also using social media extensively to reach out to the young electorate.”
She further disclosed that the EC would soon launch “Ask the EC”, a platform where the general public would be given the opportunity to ask the EC directly all issues and questions relating to the 2016 polls and answers would be provided.
“Since elections belong to the people and we all have the privilege to select those who govern us, then all stakeholders have a duty and a shared responsibility towards ensuring free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections whose outcome will be accepted by all and sundry,” she asserted.
Political parties/media support
She, therefore, stressed the need for the support of political parties and the media to help with the right education of the electorate.
In that vein, she underscored the importance of the media and the political parties to first understand the laws governing the conduct of the elections to give the right interpretations and education.
“If people are sitting in the dark, it is important we all support with voter education because the EC, media, political parties and civil society organisations all have a duty to the country to bring light to the issues.”
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