Train electoral officers 2yrs before elections -GCPP urges EC

The Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) has urged the Electoral Commission to start training electoral officers - presiding officers and polling agents- two years before the general election to make them efficient in the electoral process.

According to the party, as practice makes perfect, the Electoral Commission must seriously consider the suggestion.

The party, in a letter to the EC, also recommended the introduction of electronic voting as part of reforms to improve on transparency and credibility in the general election in 2016.

It said that biometric verification machine should also be used in the district assembly elections in order to check and sort out the freezing of the machines, and any other problems connected with its use.

The letter which was signed by the acting General Secretary of the party, Mr Frederick Ato Dadzie, said as part of the reforms, political party polling agents who were necessary in the compilation of election results on the pink sheet and monitoring of the electoral process should be paid allowances by the state.

On designing of the pink sheet the GCPP suggested that the questions asked on the pink sheet should be simplified.

The party said the designing of the columns of the pink sheet for recording figures should be made simple for everyone to understand.

‘’All the electoral officers must check to make sure the spelling of the final figures are correct’’ the GCPP stressed..

The party recommended continuous registration for Ghanaians who attain 18 years and above.

The GCPP also suggested that there should be a collaboration with the Birth and Death Registry, National Identification Authority and the Electoral Commission to expedite registration of Ghanaians who attain 18 years as voters,

The party explained that anyone who attained the age of 18 should automatically be registered and added to the electoral roll.

The GCPP also recommended that presidential nomination forms should be collected one month before the filing date of presidential nomination.

According to the GCPP the date of filing presidential nomination should be separated from the date of filing parliamentary nominations.

This, the party said, would enable political parties to offer better support for the nomination and filing of the nomination of their parliamentary candidates.

Daily Graphic/Ghana