About 131,478 special voters comprising personnel of the security services, election officers and staff of media organisations, will go to the polls today to cast their votes in 328 voting centres across the country ahead of the December 7 general election.
C.I. 127 recognises special voters as applicants who are registered voters but who due to Election Day activities are unable to vote, and as such, apply to be placed on special voters’ register to enable them vote some days before the main election on December 7.
Briefing representatives of political parties last Friday at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on preparations towards the special voting exercise, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, said the special voting exercise will take place in all 276 constituencies, including Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi (SALL), which represents 0.007% of the total voters of 18,774,159 of the voter population.
According to Madam Mensa, 750 thresholds used in the 2020 elections at the various polling stations will still be applied during the special voting as well as in the general election on December 7.
She said that individuals who qualify to vote in today’s special voting exercise but failed to register, cannot vote today but like all other voters, they are entitled to vote on Saturday, December 7 in their respective polling centres.
According to the EC, voting will commence at 7am in all special voting centres across the country and will end at 5pm.
She further added that the special voters’ ballots will not be counted at the end of the exercise but would be added to the votes for both the presidential and parliamentary election at the collation centres at the various constituencies and counted on Saturday, December 7.
The Commission also indicated that voting materials including ballot papers, indelible ink, stamp pads, stamp print pads, biometric verification devices among others that are needed have all been dispatched to all voting centres to enable them to undertake a smooth process.
“It’s also important to note that each special voting centre will be manned by five officials; well-trained officials of the EC, comprising the Presiding Officer, the Name Reference List Officer, the Verification Officer, the Ballot Issuer for presidential and the Ballot Issuer for parliamentary.”
“A portion of the Statement of Vote and the Declaration of Results form, popularly known as the Pink Sheet, will be filled out. However, the remaining portion will be filled out after the counting of the votes,” she added.
Touching on an earlier directive by the Commission to restrict the number of media personnel who would be allowed entry for coverage at the regional and constituency collation centres, Madam Mensa said the directive was not intended to restrict the media from covering the elections but rather, to ensure that there was adequate media coverage of its proceedings and activities across the constituencies and all regional and national collation centres.
She said the Commission, therefore, directed its officials at the regions to ensure that there were at least three TV stations and five radio stations at the collation centres.
“Without your lenses and your pens, there would be misinformation and disinformation which will not work out well for us, so we require you more than anything else to ensure that your cameras, lenses, your pens are working on election day and that the truth, the evidence, the facts are laid bare for every Ghanaian to see,” she stated.
She said to ensure a credible and transparent elections, the Commission has granted 6,848 accreditations to 40,000 polling stations in all 276 constituencies, to enable them provide full media coverage on the election activities.
She, however, said that same number could not be granted accreditation to the constituency and regional collation centres.
She said the Commission in consultation with the leadership of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), and the Ghana Journalists Association have, however, agreed to provide accreditation to only 4,500 media personnel who would be given different accreditation for coverage at the constituency and all 16 regional collation centres.
Deputy Chair of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Bossman Eric Asare, in response questions from the political parties at the IPAC meeting to earlier reports of a shortfall of ballots papers for some regions, said staff of the EC upon realising the discrepancies in the ballots papers delivered to the regions, immediately notified its management as a standard procedure by the Commission to ensure that all ballots papers dispatched to regions in the presence of agents of political parties are counted to be accurate.
He said it was, therefore, inaccurate information in the public domain that the shortfall was discovered by some unknown individuals at the delivery point.
He said arrangement has, however, been made with the printing houses for the remaining ballots papers to be printed for the respective regions as announced earlier.
Mr. Asare said the EC has also recruited over 200 professionals with backgrounds in mathematics, statistics, and quantitative methods to assist returning officers in their work, as part of the Commission’s measures to enhance the credibility of the results as well as transparency in the electoral process.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah