The Electoral Commission (EC) has called for support from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the December 7 poll.

A Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, who made the call said free, fair and credible elections were seen by the Commission as a strategy to promote democracy.

Mr Tettey was speaking at a CSOs’ consultative session in Accra last Tuesday. The meeting sought to solicit inputs from civil society groups into education, health and other sectors into political parties’ manifestos ahead of the 2024 general election.

Peaceful elections

Updating participants in the meeting on the EC’s timetable for the general election, Mr Tettey said this year’s elections remained high on the agenda of the Commission to conduct a peaceful and successful election.

He, therefore, called on the CSOs to help educate voters with a focus on the electoral process to attain that feat. “The CSOs have a crucial role of prompting public confidence in the electoral process,” he added.

The EC Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations said the Commission would stick to the December 7 date for this year’s elections and also use the indelible ink. The Commission had earlier proposed that it was going to change the election date from December to November and also not use the indelible ink but had to abandon the proposal after public comments on the issue.

He, however, said the commission would kick-start processes for the change of the election date for the 2028 elections and beyond.

Roadmap

Mr Tettey said the EC had rolled out a roadmap with 46 lined-up programmes categorised into four —registration, exhibition, presidential and parliamentary elections and the runoff.

The EC would conduct a registration exercise from May 7 to 27 for all those who have attained the age of 18 years and above and those who failed to take advantage of the first window.

While permitting the use of the guarantor system for the registration exercise, the EC warned that a person could not guarantee more than 10 applicants because it is an offence. He said the voter exhibition exercise was also slated for July 15 to 24, 2024, adding that, “An SMS short code is also to be announced for voters to check their details digitally but they cannot effect any change or make any input.”

“Those who may detect faults on their data will have to go to any of the EC’s offices for corrections,” he stated.

Elections

Mr Tettey said all materials needed for the elections had been procured and the verification machines had all been serviced with enough backups. He said the Commission has also designated some phone lines for complaints to be lodged during the election period for attention.

Mr Tettey also announced September 9-13, 2024 for receipt of nomination forms of presidential candidates. “Unlike previously, the forms will be posted on its website for interested persons to fill and return same. The EC has also set September and October for stakeholder engagement and publicity,” he said.

Source: GraphicOnline