EC to create more polling stations
The Electoral Commission (EC) is preparing to create more polling stations for the general election in 2016.
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The Director of Finance of EC, Mr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, who announced this, said there was the need for new polling stations to be created because the EC could no longer use the current polling station structure to conduct the 2016 election.
According to him, the EC had to take such step because of the increasing growth in the population size and also in order not to overburden the biometric verification devices.
Mr Asamoah was speaking at a forum in Ho to sensitise the voting public to the District Level Election (DLE) and interact with civil society organisations (CSOs), community and faith-based organisations (FBOs) and the media.
500 voters at polling station
He revealed that “no polling station would have more than 500 voters” and observed that the new arrangement would enhance proximity.
The finance director, however, indicated that all the various political parties would be engaged on the issue before the take-off of the process to prevent any disagreements.
District Assembly Elections
The participants received education on the main features of DLE and its regulations, election monitoring and observation, election offences and penalties, among others.
Throwing light on the upcoming district assembly elections, Mr Asamoah indicated that the DLE was a governance system for the people and all must show interest in the process.
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“The district assembly is made up of government appointees and the elected assembly members. As we can see now, when the assembly members are not around, the DCEs and MCEs only operate on guidelines. There is no proper supervision of their work,” he said.
He said it was, therefore, important for the electorate to elect qualified people who could bring development to their areas.
The EC, he said, had gone through a number of electoral reforms to make the system more transparent and build the confidence of the people.
EC awareness campaign
He said the EC had done its duty of creating awareness and building the confidence of the public for successful district level elections.
He added that there was expectation of higher participation than previous years because “the assembly election is becoming keen and should not be underrated”.
The finance director, however, said “the confidence in every election system is measured by the turnout of voters and, therefore, called on the populace to participate massively in the elections.
The Volta Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Madam Laurentia Kpatakpa, called on the CSOs, FBOs and the media to use their various platforms to talk about the DLE and educate people on the electoral process.