Jean Mensa – Chairperson Of EC
The Coalition of Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO) has commended the Electoral Commission (EC) and the general public for the generally smooth voters registration exercise.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Albert Kofi Arhin, CODEO said the exercise over the past six weeks was generally smooth.
However, CODEO condemned some reported acts of violence during the exercise which started on June 30, 2020 and ended on August 6.
“CODEO condemns all acts of intimidation, harassment and use of violence which took place during the exercise,” according to the statement.
CODEO called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Ghana Police Service working with the Attorney General (AG) to act expeditiously to complete all investigations including the violent incidents in Banda which resulted in the death of one young man, as well as the incident in Awutu Senya East in the Central Region and in Dormaa West in the Bono region.
It urged that “Persons found culpable in various criminal breaches of the law should be prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the laws of Ghana.”
“CODEO urges the Police administration to share updates of these investigations with the Ghanaian public to foster confidence in the security agencies and also serve as deterrent against future incidents of this nature. Failure to enforce the rule of law will erode confidence in the security agencies and the rule of law,” the statement pointed out.
CODEO also urged the EC to re-open registration in specific areas where people who had made themselves available for registration could not do so.
Furthermore, CODEO cautioned all political parties to desist from the use of incendiary language that unnecessarily polarizes the country along ethnic and extremely partisan lines as this can lead to dire consequences for the country in the short to long term.
“CODEO believes that stakeholders can raise genuine concerns about the electoral process without necessarily using such polarizing language,” the statement indicated.
“Towards the conduct of the general elections, CODEO calls on the National Election Security Task Force to constantly engage all key stakeholders including the political parties on security arrangements for the December polls to bolster stakeholder confidence and trust in election security.”
Registration
Giving its monitoring report, CODEO said daily registration started on time (by 7:15AM) in about a half (52%) of the observed centers, but it started after 8AM in the remaining 48%.
“Accredited political party agents, particularly from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were present in nearly all (99%) centers observed.”
It added that “stationed security personnel were present at a majority (62%) of the centers but absent in a significant number of centers (38%).”
“BVR kits functioned generally well except in a few instances (6%) where at some point in time in the course of the exercise, there were some challenges with the devices (unresponsive devices, camera and logging-in challenges, and difficulties with the fingerprint scanners).”
“The challenges with fingerprint scanners were the most commonly reported.”
“There were still challenges with adherence to the COVID-19 health and safety protocols at some registration centers. For example, in 21% of cases, social distancing was not strictly enforced.
At a few registration centers (2.6%), some people attempted to physically prevent some registration applicants from registering instead of using a ‘Challenge Form’.”
“There were also a few reports about abuse of the ‘challenge’ provision as some political party agents of the NPP and the NDC engaged in what seemed to be arbitrary challenge of persons they suspected of belonging to the other political party. This for instance happened during the mop-up exercise at the district office of the EC in Jomoro in the Western Region,” it said.
It alleged that unauthorised persons were found at 16% of cases observed. At the M/A J.H.S New Tafo registration center in Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region for example, unauthorised persons prevented some applicants from registering on the basis of non-residence.
“Observers reported of acts of intimidation and violence by some persons at a few centers (1%). For instance, on August 2, 2020 at the Funeral Grounds registration center, Akanyakrom in Banda in the Bono Region, a group of men entered the registration center and assaulted some registration applicants in the queue, resulting in a temporary suspension of the registration exercise.”
By Melvin Tarlue