Restore early special voting for media practitioners, election observers - CODEO tells EC
The Coalition of Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO) has asked the Electoral Commission to restore early special voting for media practitioners and election observers prior to the 2016 general election.
It stated that such group of people played indispensable roles that go a long way to ensure the credibility and transparency of the electoral process.
The EC, in the 2012 general election, disallowed early voting for media practitioners but allowed such voting for the security services, staff of the EC and other organisations as well as some executive members of the various political parties.
A representative of CODEO, Mrs Rhoda Acheampong, made the suggestion at a public forum on the status of the Supreme Court’s recommendations of electoral reforms.
The event, which attracted civil society, media, academia and think tanks, was organised by Imani Ghana and Occupy Ghana.
Presenting a paper from an observer’s point of view, Mrs Acheampong said the December 2012 general election raised a number of electoral concerns that needed to be addressed by the EC and other stakeholders.
She said the EC’s insistence on not allowing early voting for media practitioners and election observers did not augur well for the election process.
“We can ensure transparency and credibility of the entire electoral process if we allow these groups of people to cast their votes early to enable them to help monitor the electoral processes to ensure fairness,” she said.
Proposals
She also proposed a number of electoral reforms which the EC must consider to facilitate smooth conduct of elections in 2016 and beyond.
Mrs Acheampong suggested the need for the EC to adhere to and implement the various recommendations given by the Supreme Court after the election petition.
She proposed that the EC should come up with an elaborate timetable two years ahead of the 2016 elections to avert some of the challenges they and other stakeholders encountered prior to, during and after elections.
She also proposed to the EC to institute incentives that would attract qualified electoral officials, whom she suggested should be adequately trained to man the various polling stations during elections.
“The EC must constantly update stakeholders with the clearance of names in the voter register to avoid doubts about figures,” she proposed, adding that “the EC must bring the closing of polls to 4 p.m. to ensure transparency and credible declaration of results.”
She again suggested the need for the EC to publish all election results declared at the various polling stations online “for the sake of transparency and credibility.”
Institute sanctions
A legal practitioner, Mr Sampson Lardy Ayenini, said the EC had had a voter register that was problematic from the outset, that is prior to the 2012 elections.
He was worried that there was a big vacuum in electoral sanctions against electoral officers, especially presiding officers, who failed to sign ballot papers, an act he said placed a question mark on the election process.
“It’s time we instituted sanctions against presiding officers who failed to do the right thing,” he suggested.
Another legal practitioner, Mr Abraham Amaliba, said the delay that was associated with the election petition proceedings was due to lack of equipment.
“Again, the entire petition proceedings delayed mainly because the concerns of the various parties were taken care of to ensure a credible verdict acceptable to all.
“We, therefore, must not condemn the entire processes adopted by the Supreme Court,” he said.
Recruiting teachers
Making a contribution, a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei, said the stability of future elections would depend much on the behaviour and conduct of the EC.
He, therefore, called on the commission to project future election results on public screens as it was done in the past, saying: “We cannot have a situation where the EC declares results without the people knowing anything.”
He kicked against the decision of EC not allowing teachers to be electoral officers, saying such decision was “mischievous.”
“The decision that teachers should be in classrooms was wrong. Teachers and nurses are the only populated group of educated professionals who could be recruited to help man polling stations,” she said.
He, therefore, called on the Ghana Education Service to allow teachers to break for a week to enable them to serve as electoral officers, adding: “Our children can afford to wait a week home in the interest of the nation.”
EC responds
Responding to the concerns raised, a Principal Election Officer of EC, Nana Kwaku Duodo, said EC had taken notice of the Supreme Court recommendations and was consulting and building consensus with all stakeholders to implement the road map recommendations.
He said EC would also increase the training days for returning officers and other electoral officers to equip them to man various polling stations.
He said during the recent registration exercise in the country, the EC encountered 60,000 cases of multiple registration and 4000 challenges and expressed the belief that stakeholders would support EC to improve the voter registration process.
