Special Voting slated for December 2
The Special Voting exercise for the 2024 general election has been fixed for Monday, December 2, 2024.
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The Electoral Commission (EC) has consequently urged the relevant institutions and individuals who have a just cause to be granted special voting right to apply for it between June 17 and July 1.
At a meeting with senior media actors and the top brass of the security agencies, namely the military, the police, Immigration Service, Prisons Service, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Fire Service, the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, said special voting would not be conferred automatically, and that it required qualified persons to apply for it.
She said the special voting exercise would take place in all the 275 constituencies across the country, with each voters expected to cast their vote in their constituency as contained in the details of an individual’s voter ID card.
Mrs Mensa, who was flanked by her deputies, Samuel Tettey and Dr Eric Bossman Asare, said applicants for special voting rights should be registered voters in the specific constituencies where they desired to cast their votes.
She stressed further that those who would be granted special voting rights would have their names removed from the regular voting list for the December 7 polls.
Double-voting
“The intention is to prevent double-voting,” the EC Chairperson said, emphasising that the commission had put in place stringent measures to check the public from undermining the special voting process.
The special voting exercise is guaranteed under Regulation 3(1) of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 127 which states that the voter may apply to the returning officer of the constituency in which the voter is registered so that the voter could be entered as a special voter if, as a result of election duties, that voter would not be able to be present on the day of the election at the polling station where the voter registered.
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The category of voters granted such status comprise staff of the Military, Police, Immigration Service, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Prisons Service, the Fire Service, polling officers and permanent staff of the EC and the media.
Mrs Mensa said the district police headquarters were designated as the special voting centres in each constituency. She said where the number of voters allocated to a special voting centre exceeded the 750 threshold set by the EC, “another voting centre is designated as a special voting centre to facilitate the voting process within the same centre”.
She said to ensure a seamless application and voting process for all applicants of Special Voting, all applicants should apply directly to the Returning Officer of the constituency where the applicant was a registered voter.
Application process
Mrs Mensa said persons applying for special voting were required to bring along a letter from their institutions indicating that they were staff members of the said institution.
“Members from institutions who desire to apply as a group may submit a list of their officers to the Retuning Officer to serve as a register to facilitate the process. The list must contain the names of each applicant, the Voter ID number and Polling Station Code as it appears on the Voter ID Card.
These particulars will enable the Returning Officer to verify if the applicant is a registered voter in the constituency. “Note that all applicants must apply in person to the Returning Officer,” the EC Chairperson emphasised.
Applicants who have misplaced their Voter ID Cards should replace their cards during the exercise to replace lost ID cards to enable them to state the correct particulars for their applications.