By Edward Acquah
Peduase (E/R), Dec. 14, GNA- The Electoral Commission (EC) intends to display results from the various polling stations on a dedicated online portable as part of efforts to enhance transparency in the 2024 General Election.
The Commission said it would display scanned signed pink sheets on the portal, which the public can access in real-time.
Mrs Jane Mensa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, disclosed this at a stakeholder meeting to take stock of events after the 2020 General Election as part of preparations towards the 2024 General Election.
The meeting, organised by the National Peace Council, was held at Peduase in the Eastern Region on Thursday.
Mrs Mensa said the decision to publish polling station results would promote inclusion and involve citizens throughout the election process.
“We intend to display the results from the polling station on a dedicated portal. This proposal aligns with the EU Observer Mission recommendation. For the first time in our history, we posted results from the 16 Regions and 275 Constituencies in real-time.
“This time around, we plan to display the scanned signed pink sheets on a dedicated portal. We are confident that this arrangement will promote transparency and engender further trust and confidence in our electoral processes,” she said.
The EC also proposed to close polls at 15:00 hours to ensure that counting was done in broad daylight to enhance transparency.
The Commission said the experience from the 2020 Election indicated that by 13:00 hours, about 70 per cent of polling centres were empty of voters due to the creation of multiple polling centres that sped the process.
Mrs Mensa said the EC intended to create many polling centres and ensure that each polling centre had not more than 500 voters to limit voting time.
She said in the last election, voters spent not more than five minutes casting their voting because of the creation of more voting centres.
“We are convinced that closing the polls at 3 pm will enable counting and collating to take place in broad daylight and promote the needed transparency and orderliness we so desire.
“We trust that our Parliament will support this drive to ensure greater transparency and orderliness in our electoral process,” Mrs Mensa said.
The Commission also proposed an all-year-round exhibition exercise, which would enable citizens to check their registration details on their smartphones and other mobile devices.
Mrs Mensa said she was hopeful that Parliament would pass the new Constitutional Instrument that recommended a continuous voter registration exercise and sought to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document to establish an applicant’s citizenship.
She said the proposal would help to phase out the guarantor system, which had been fraught with challenges and undermined the credibility of the voter register.
Reverend Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, Chairman of the National Peace Council, said the Council would continuously dialogue with all stakeholders to ensure a peaceful election in 2024.
He appealed to the National Democratic Congress to return to the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to foster consensus building.
“If we all commit to peace Ghana will have one of the best elections in Africa,” he said.
Ms Kathleen Addy, Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), said the 2024 Election was peculiar in the wake of political instability in the West Africa Sub-region.
“We are more vulnerable than before. We must work with each other and assure each other so that we can arrive at the elections and beyond the elections in peace and intact,” she said.
GNA
