The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), has announced plans to institute an all-year round Voter’s Registration Exercise in the country.
The EC disclosed that this will enable citizens who turn 18, or persons who have not previously registered to visit any EC District office with their Ghana Card or Passport and register as voters.
In a communique by the EC, it indicated that this came as a result of some agreements made at the just ended Election 2020 IPAC Assessment Workshop.
“At the end of the interactive workshop for members of the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to assess the processes leading to the 2020 General Elections and the Election, the Political Parties and the Electoral Commission agreed on the following: Set up a committee to deliberate on the implementation modalities for the continuous voter register.
“Put in place a cut-off time for the continuous Voter Registration Exhibition to allow for the compilation of the register for voting on election day.”
Electoral Commission
Amongst other agreements made was to close the polls at 3:00pm rather than 5:00pm during elections.
The Commission also indicated that it will be introducing an all-year round Voter Exhibition exercise through the use of technology via an SMS Short Code. It noted that it will as well have periodic physical verification at the various Exhibition Centres.
Moreover, the Electoral Commission agreed to build further efficiency into the collation processes by focusing on data entry only at the Constituency Collation Centre, (CCC) which is the entry point.
The EC further said the captured data at the CCC will be made available to all stakeholders at the Regional and National levels from which regional and national reports will be generated.
Significant feats achieved during election 2020
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, said, although some major challenges were encountered during the election, significant feats were achieved that are worth mentioning.
She noted the absence of long queues at polling stations, the ability to reduce the cost of the election from USD 13.00 to USD 7.70 per person, and save the country GHS 522 million at a time when the cost of elections in the world was rising were among the EC’s achievements.
Jean Mensah further averred that it was important for these achievements to be recognized.
“As a nation, as a Commission, and as stakeholders, it is important that we recognize the feats we achieved through the 2020 electoral process for the purpose of documenting best practices and experience and to ensure that the successful strategies adopted do not fall through the cracks of inordinate fault-finding and critique.
“Sadly, we are slow to recognize where we have put good processes and systems in place, much less document them. In a bid to improve upon our past performance, we rush to propose new recommendations when the old processes and structures are working very well.”
Jean Mensah
IPAC demands update on election violence
Meanwhile, the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), has asked the Ghana Police Service to provide an update on its investigations into the violence recorded during the 2020 polls.
“Security around elections is the responsibility of the Ghana Police Service. Ghana Police Service should arrange a periodic platform to engage IPAC and other stakeholders. Ghana Police Service should provide updates on the 2020 Election malpractices and violence.”
IPAC
