The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is opposing a decision by the Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) to end polls at 3:00pm instead of 5: 00pm.
The opposition party, which was not represented at a two-day IPAC review workshop on the 2020 general election, said it will disenfranchise eligible voters.
The Electoral Commission (EC) has proposed to close polls at 3:pm instead of 5:pm in 2024.
This is to enable it do early counting of votes and declaration of results at the polling station to avoid chaos.
The reform forms part of a 16-point proposal by the EC that was agreed upon by the Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) at the end of a two-day review workshop of the 2020 general election in Accra.
Director of Elections for the NDC, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, disclosed this at a press conference in Accra Thursday May 20, 2021.
He maintained that, the current arrangement of closing polls at 5:pm should be maintained.
For him, the proposal presented by the EC should be refuted by many, particularly when the Commission, led by Mrs Mensa, failed to honour its promise to announce the 2020 election results within 24 hours.
According to Mr Afriyie-Ankrah, the EC by embarking on a journey to fix things that are not broken proves that it has failed to learn from its mistakes.
“Ghanaians will recall how a similar hasty decision by the EC to declare results within 24 hours after the closure of polls in the 2020 elections failed miserably and led to the rushed declaration of a patently flawed results that yielded a percentage aggregate of more than 100%, by the Returning Officer, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa. One would have thought that Jean Mensa would have learnt the right lessons by now but that appears not to be the case.
“Friends from the media, our position on this proposal is simple. The current arrangement of closing polls at 5 PM has worked perfectly in seven general elections in this country and does not require any fixing. Like the Chairperson said in her speech, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” he stated.