We need assurance of successful conduct of elections, EC

In 48 hours, Ghana will once again go to the polls to elect a president and members of the legislature to lead the country for the next four years.

All the political parties contesting the December 7 elections have criss-crossed the length and breadth of the country canvassing for votes.

Ordinarily, every Ghanaian should be excited that once again he or she will be able to use the thumb to elect leaders to run the country because this is the period that the voice of the people counts and sounds loudest in terms of governance.

It is the period when politicians dread what the ultimate decision of the masses will be, for that decision can make or unmake those who are currently in authority.

Slogans coined by politicians because of the shock of the outcome of polls include: “Fear the electorate” and “Fear voters”.

Meanwhile, the challenges that have been faced during the two days scheduled by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the special voting by the security services, journalists and EC officials are already threatening to tamper with that power of the electorate to call the shots when it comes to governing the country.

Many who were registered to cast their ballots on December 1 missed out on the special voting because they could not find their names on the register.

Subsequent to that, the EC extended the day to two days, giving a lifeline to those who missed out on December 1 to vote yesterday. But the challenges still persisted and at the end of the day some could still not cast their ballots because their names were not at the designated polling centres.

The worry here is that, according to the EC, those whose names had been taken out of the main register because they had been scheduled to do special voting would lose their chance to vote on December 7 if they were unable to vote during the special voting.

It is just two days to Election Day and yet prospective voters are still uncertain of their status in view of what happened during the special voting.

There is uncertainty over whether every registered voter who has as yet not voted will be able to do so on December 7, and that is very worrying to the Daily Graphic.

This is why we urge the EC to try as much as possible to put its house in order before the D-day, so that nobody is disenfranchised.

The political temperature is very high as the political parties round off their campaigning and so it is up to the EC to ensure that the temperature is cooled down, so that no one is inclined to believe that he or she has been deliberately or accidentally disenfranchised.

This is a real test for the EC Chair, Mrs Charlotte Osei, the other commissioners and the EC as a whole and they must not fail, so that Ghana will still remain intact, no matter who wins or who loses the elections.

Every certified Ghanaian registered voter must be allowed to vote because it is everyone’s right.