Jean Mensa
The Electoral Commission (EC) has opened applications for special voting for qualified institutions and individuals who wish to partake in the 2024 general elections which have been fixed for Monday, December 2, 2024.
This is in line with Regulation 3(1) of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 127. It notes that the voter may apply to the returning officer of the constituency in which the voter is registered so that the voter can 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 hence will not be conferred automatically.
The Chairperson of the Commission announced this in a meeting with the national executives of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), and representatives of the security forces in Accra on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, where she said the special voting exercise will take place in all the 275 constituencies in the country.
The EC explained that the Category of voters granted such status comprises 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, Ghana Journalists Association and the National Media Commission.
The EC noted that persons applying for special voting are required to bring along a letter from their institutions indicating that they are staff of the said institution.
“Members from institutions who desire to apply as a group may submit a list of their officers to the Returning Officer to serve as a register to facilitate the process. The list must contain the names of each applicant, the Voter ID number, and the 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” the EC chair stated.
“All applicants must apply in person to the Returning Officer”, the EC stressed.
Meanwhile, the application process according to the EC will close on July 1.
-BY Daniel Bampoe