Benjamin Bano-Bioh
The Electoral Commission (EC) at the Airport View Hotel held a training session with the media to address various concerns and provide updates on the 2024 electoral processes.
The EC’s media engagement strategy was about empowering the media to report accurately and counter misinformation related to the 2024 elections.
Director of Electoral Services, Electoral Commission, Benjamin Bano-Bioh, during the training explained elections as one of the main pillars of democracy which has become a commonly accepted means of legitimising governance institutions.
He stated that, elections in Ghana have always been marked by tension, suspicion, and mistrust, often escalating into confrontations that threaten stability and typically arises during election planning, voting, and post-election result announcements
However, effective management of electoral processes and key stakeholders can significantly enhance the credibility and acceptance of election outcomes, thereby reducing the risk of violent conflict and consolidating democracy.
He disclosed that the 2024 electoral process entails different activities such as publicity and voter education; recruitment and training of temporary officials; demarcation/delimitation and registration of eligible voters.
He said these are activities procedurally undertaken in the course of preparation, executing and monitoring of a successful conduct of elections, exhibition of provisional voters’ register, nomination of candidates
He mentioned other electoral process activities which end in a successful conduct of elections as printing of notice of poll and ballot papers, election day activities as well as post-election programmes.
Highlighting on some activities, he stressed that, demarcation of electoral boundaries simply means dividing a country into units for purpose of electing representatives for constituencies, units and electoral areas.
According to him, registration of eligible voters is one of the main pillars of free, fair and incontrovertible elections, adding that, the total number of registered voters currently is 18,772,795 which includes 9,690,173 females and 9,082,622 males.
Mr. Bano-Bioh stated that issues identified with the voters’ registration such as applicants wrongly placed on multiple lists, voters placed in wrong polling stations, and accidental duplicates have been resolved.
He stressed that, the exhibition of the provisional voters’ register is the display of the provisional voters’ register for public inspection at the exhibition centres for a period, determined by the EC.
“The exhibition exercise provides the identification of polling stations, inclusion of omitted names, objection to unqualified names on the provisional voters register, correction of wrong details and removal of details of deceased registered voters from the voters roll,” he stated.
He added that, the provisional voters’ register has been made available through the USSD code *711*51# (SMS), which is accessible on all networks.
He emphasised that election and election day activities includes, voting, counting of ballots and announcement of polling station results, collation and declaration of winner for parliamentary election and announcement of presidential election results at the Constituency Collation Centre.
“Before voting begins, the presiding officer sets up the polling station and ensures that all the materials for the conduct of the election are in place, and voting will start at 7am and end at 5pm,” he mentioned.
He disclosed that, the candidate’s agents, security personnel, accredited observers and the accredited media personnel are persons permitted to witness the election for a free, fair and transparency of the poll.
The post election activities, he said is endorsement on the Writ election and Gazette publication.
“A democratic election is impossible without the media, since they are essential to democracy, hence, in the 2024 elections,” he said.
He urged the media to play critical roles throughout the electoral process by promoting public debate, educating citizens, monitoring the integrity of the processes and informing citizens on when election will take place, type of election, who the candidates are and who can participate.
He then asked the media to work in hand with the EC to promote fee, fair, transparency and incredible elections.
By Janet Odei Amponsah