EC responsible for voter education
It has emerged that voter education for national elections has been entrusted into the hands of the Electoral Commission rather than the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
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The NCCE is mandated by the Constitution to perform civic education, including voter education on election procedures, but specific funding for the exercise is contained in the annual budget of the EC.
The Upper West Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr Husheini Sulemana Haruna, said his outfit had complemented efforts to educate the voter population on voting procedures, but said that exercise was specifically catered for in the budget of the EC.
Election watchers in Ghana have raised concerns over the high number of spoilt ballots at various polls, including national and intra-party elections. In some cases, total spoilt ballots have exceeded the votes garnered by some candidates.
Complementary role
But Mr Haruna said the NCCE only played a complementary role to educate voters on voting procedures since the required resources for the exercise was always handed to the EC.
He expressed worry that spoilt ballots continued to increase at subsequent polls despite efforts spent on educating the populace on basic voting procedures.
He said one of the most effective voter education exercises was the 1992 elections when the EC and the NCCE teamed up for a joint campaign.
“That exercise was very successful, and despite being the first national polls after a long while, the voting public seemed well educated on the procedures,” he said.
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The two bodies, he said, now undertook voter education in separate campaigns, and said they would double efforts this year to attempt to reduce the number of spoilt ballots during the November 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.