The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked the
Electoral Commission (EC) to count and make known the ballots emanating from the
special voting which will precede the December 7 elections to help avoid
“confusion and rigging.” According to the party, keeping mute on the
results of the special voting which will take place one week before making the
results known could help promote confusion.
The Afigya Kwabre South
Constituency Chairman of the opposition NPP, Odeneho Kwaku Appiah made the
observation said if the EC intends to go ahead to hold on to declaring the
results of the special voting, then it should allow all political parties to
keep an eye on the ballots which would be kept at the police
station.
Odeneho Appial was speaking at Atimatim near Kumasi during the
launch of "Mmaa Nsore" (Women Arise) under the women's wing of the NPP for the
constituency.
The special voting is normally done by EC staff, security
personnel, journalists and other persons whose nature of work does not allow
them to vote on Election Day hence these people are given the priority to cast
their ballots ahead of Election Day.
By convention, the EC do not count
the ballots cast in the special voting. The ballot boxes are not opened but
party agents are made to add their seal to that of the EC polling officer and
the boxes are kept at the police station and only brought out to the collation
centre on Election Day, opened, counted and added to the constituency
total.
But this year the NPP has raised issues with the procedure and
called on the EC to count and make the results known right after voting before
it is added to the constituency total on Election Day.
Odeneho Appiah
maintained that there was the need to ensure free and fair elections with
regards to the special voting.
"We are determined to protect ballot boxes
on special voting day till the day they are counted. We will not allow ourselves
to be cheated this time round. It is either the EC would count ballots at the
end of special voting or we will sleep at where these boxes are kept till
December 7," he stated.
Commenting on their trust for the police to keep
an eye on the boxes, he said Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief
Executives (MMDCEs) by convention were heads of the security councils in their
various assemblies and their neutrality in ensuring the safety of ballot boxes
from rigging were questionable.
"If our MMDCEs will still be heads of
security councils within their respective areas how can we trust them for the
safety of Special Voting ballot boxes in police stations? We can trust the
police, so we need representatives of all participating political parties to
safeguard every single box placed in police custody", he
stated. |
