The Electoral Commission (EC) has been instructed by Mr. Richard Ahiagbah, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) director of communications, to make sure that any eligible voter who might have to make the lengthy trip to the polling place in order to cast their ballot won’t be denied the right to vote should the proposal to close polls at 3 PM in 2024 instead of the customary 5 PM be carried out.
According to Mr. Ahiagbah, the governing party has cautious optimism on this idea.
” It is not a new proposal, they are just calling and giving us a further justification for why they think it would work.
” It is not a new proposal, they are just calling and giving us a further justification for why they think it would work.
“For us in the NPP, I think we received this with cautious optimism, with the understanding that they would ensure that no voter is denied the occasion to vote if they are in line and qualified to vote.
“Apart from people being in line before 3PM, if for one reason or the other, at some places where people have to travel long distances to come to the polling stations. Sometimes, people are working and plan to come later, we hope those situations would not come up and a good number of people will be disenfranchised. If they can show us the comfort that the polling stations will work efficiently,”Mr Ahiagbah said.
When recommending that voting end at 3 PM, Commission Chairwoman Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa said that this would enable election officials to count the results in broad daylight, guaranteeing transparency and order.
Speaking on Thursday, December 14, at an inter-party discussion and stock-taking meeting hosted by the National Peace Council in Accra, she hinted that the idea was based on the 2020 election experience, in which over 70% of polling places were vacant by 1:00 pm.
“In 2020, 70 percent of our polling centres had a voter threshold of 500 and below. This time, we intend to ensure that all our polling station centers have a threshold of 500 voters and below. In the same vein, we will increase the number of our polling stations nationwide.
“We believe that this will go a long way to reduce the long queues that characterize our elections and allow for a smooth, seamless, hustle-free voting process. In 2020, it took voters not more than five minutes to cast their votes due to the introduction of this policy.
“Based on our 2020 experience and also feedback from several observer groups, we propose to close the polls at 3:00pm.
“Our experience in 2020 reveals that by 1:00pm, 70 percent of our polling stations were empty of voters as most voters had cast their votes. This made it possible because the threshold of most polling centers was reduced to 500 voters per voting center.
“This was coupled with the robust verification devices that were deployed to the polling stations. We are convinced that by closing the polls at 3:00 pm, we will be able to count and collate in broad daylight and this will promote the needed transparency and orderliness that we so desire,” Mrs. Mensa said.
Source: Marzuuq Issah | Ghana360news.
