Odumasi B/A), March 23, GNA – An official of the Electoral Commission (EC) has appealed to political parties not to transport party supporters from one electoral area to the other for the purposes of registering in the forth coming biometric registration exercise.
Mr Yaw Afi, Sunyani West Supervisor of the Electoral Commission (EC), said those who would be caught would be prosecuted.
He was speaking at a one day workshop organised by the EC at Odumasi and it was attended by more than 60 participants made up of traditional authorities, representatives of political parties, heads of departments and civil society organisations.
He explained that during the exercise the faces of individuals must be seen clearly to give their clear identification and urged especially women to push all their hair back to ensure that both ears appear clearly before taking the photograph.
Nana Kwame Agyekum, the District Electoral Officer, appealed to the participants to accept and embrace the biometric registration to help reduce numerous problems that the EC used to face in the manual registration.
He said Ghana had to adopt the biometric system to meet the current technological changes in the world, adding, the same requirement used in the manual method had not changed except the demand for identification cards to prove a person's nationality.
The district polling centers will be grouped in 28 registration centres instead of the existing 111 pooling centers under the cluster method, the supervisor said, explaining that four polling stations would become one center in cluster groupings to make the registration process easier to complete within the 40 days schedule.
Source: GNA
Friday, March 23, 2012
EC urged to prosecute double registration offenders
Winneba, March 23, GNA - Participants at a day's workshop on the biometric voters' registration at Winneba have suggested to the Electoral Commission to prosecute people for multiple registration and to delete their names from the voters' register.
This will serve as deterrent to others and also help to have a credible voter register.
The participants made the suggestion after they had been taken through the rules and regulations of the biometric voter registration exercise.
The participants were made up of traditional rulers, heads of departments, representatives of religious bodies, civil society and political party representative in Winneba.
The programme organised by the Electoral Commission was under the theme "Enhancing the credibility of the voters register".
The participants appealed to Ghanaians to adhere to the laid down principles of the forthcoming election to enable the nation have free and fair elections.
The Effutu Municipal Electoral Commission Officer, Mr Anthony Oppong,
urged the participants to spread the knowledge about the registration to people in the community to help make it a success.
A similar workshop was held at Breman Asikuma for the chiefs, selected groups and political party representatives and it was conducted by Mr Gabriel Dowuona-Hammond, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Electoral Officer.
Source: GNA
This will serve as deterrent to others and also help to have a credible voter register.
The participants made the suggestion after they had been taken through the rules and regulations of the biometric voter registration exercise.
The participants were made up of traditional rulers, heads of departments, representatives of religious bodies, civil society and political party representative in Winneba.
The programme organised by the Electoral Commission was under the theme "Enhancing the credibility of the voters register".
The participants appealed to Ghanaians to adhere to the laid down principles of the forthcoming election to enable the nation have free and fair elections.
The Effutu Municipal Electoral Commission Officer, Mr Anthony Oppong,
urged the participants to spread the knowledge about the registration to people in the community to help make it a success.
A similar workshop was held at Breman Asikuma for the chiefs, selected groups and political party representatives and it was conducted by Mr Gabriel Dowuona-Hammond, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Electoral Officer.
Source: GNA
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Ghana Elections 2012 Daily News Review - 22nd March, 2011
Today's newspaper review begins with news in a number of papers about the biometric voters registration exercise. The Daily Guide reports that the Ashanti regional office of the Electoral Commission (EC) has declared its readiness for the biometric registration exercise which begins nationwide on Saturday. Samuel Tetteh, Regional Chairman of the EC told Daily Guide his outfit was set for the important electoral exercise.
In a related story, Jomoro EC takes delivery of materials for the biometric registration exercise on Saturday, March 24. As reported by the Daily Dispatch, the District Electoral Officer, Mr Kwabena Asante, who made this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Half Assini, said series of programmes in preparation for the exercise had almost been completed.
More news on the biometric registration exercise from the Daily Guide as EC cautions voters. And says eligible voters, who harbor the intention of registering more than once during `the biometric registration exercise, should rethink as they would be exposed by the Electoral Commission (EC). Names of such unscrupulous persons, according the EC officials, would be printed and labeled as exceptional in a wanted list on voting day for arrest and prosecution.
Once again in the Daily Guide, the Asunafo North Municipal Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Christian Boafo Offeh, has warned political parties to stop transporting voters from one electoral area to another to register, saying the practice violates the electoral laws of Ghana. Under the headline "Stop Transporting Voters", the paper reports that Mr. Offeh was speaking at the first quarterly meeting of the Asunafo North Constituency Inter-Party Dialogue Committee at Goaso in the Brong Ahafo region.
Biometric registration gets legal backing. According to the Chronicle newspaper, the Public Elections (Registration of Voters. 2012) (C.I.72), that gives the legal backing to the Electoral Commission to carry out the Biometric Voter Registration(BVR), matures in Parliament today, after satisfying the 21 parliamentary sitting days. Consequently, EC has fixed Saturday to carry out the nationwide BVR intended to compile a credible voter register for the December general election. The exercise spans 40 days.
Media Practitioners have been called upon to help in reaching out to potential voters by educating and informing them about the impending biometric registration exercise. Alhaji Sule Amadu , Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Electoral Commission(EC),who made the call said the success of the biometric registration exercise would rely heavily on the media. The Ghanaian Times covers this in the headline "The success of the biometric registration exercise will depend on the media-says EC official"
Moving on from the biometric voter registration exercise, the Chronicle reports of Political Parties being urged to operate within the law. Political parties contesting 2012 general elections, especially the NPP and NDC, have been entreated to uphold the tenets of democracy and operate within the Political Parties' Code of Conduct as well as the 1992 Constitution. The Asunafo North Municipal Director of NCCE, Mr Philip Kombat who made the call at the first quarterly meeting of the Asunafo North Constituency Inter- Party Dialogue Committee at Goaso in the Brong Ahafo region noted that though Articles 55(3) of the 1992 constitution gives political parties the freedom to participate in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information on political ideologies, social and economic programmes of national character, they should do that devoid of insults.
On political campaign scene, Kwadaso NPP targets 100,000. As part of efforts to ensure a resounding victory for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December polls, the Kwadaso constituency branch of the party has declared its intention to register at least 100,000 voters in the upcoming biometric registration exercise.
NPP Bares Teeth At Odododiodoo. Members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Odododiodoo Constituency in Accra say they can no longer sit unconcerned for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to visit brutality on them. They appear to have lost confidence in the local police command (Jamestown Police Station), report by the Daily Guide.
We draw the curtains on today's edition of newspaper review with a story in the Ghanaian Times that reads "we must pray for peaceful polls". A renowned international evangelist, Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, has urged Ghanaians to seek the face of God for successful elections in December. He said though he was optimistic that God would give Ghanaians a leader, come January 2013, it was important that as citizens'' we seek the face of the Lord because a nation without Christ is either in crisis or bound to be in crisis.''
This daily news review is compiled by African Elections Project (AEP) Media Monitoring Centre, Accra, Ghana.
CODEO launches campaign of monitoring political parties
The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) on Wednesday launched a campaign to monitor the pre-election activities of political parties and the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise.
Prof Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, former Chair of the Electoral Commission and Co-Chair of the CODEO, announced this at the launch of the USAID sponsored project in Accra.
CODEO, made up of 36 secular and faith-based civil society organizations, has independently observed every election in Ghana since 2000 and it is a Coalition dedicated to promoting free, fair and transparent elections through non-partisan election observation.
Prof Justice Crabbe said from March 24th to May 7th CODEO will deploy 650 field observers to scientifically sample polling stations across the country adding that " CODEO with the technical assistance of the Center Democratic Development (CDD), has developed a BVR checklist, prepared a training manual and sampled the 650 polling stations that will be monitored."
"From the data that will be gathered from the BVR observation, CODEO will produce two baseline reports that will form the basis for other interventions and future advocacy activities. These reports would also be shared with the media and the Ghanaian public," he said.
Prof Justice Crabbe, who is a former Supreme Court Justice, said CODEO will undertake the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) method of observing elections, complemented by the traditional observation on Election Day.
For these activities, he said, the Coalition will recruit, train and deploy 4,000 observers including 1,200 Rapid Response Observers and whiles the regular observers will provide general reports on the elections at their polling stations, the rapid response observers will in addition to their regular monitoring duties, use SMS technology to transmit results from their polling stations to the CODEO Information Center to feed our parallel vote tabulation database.
Prof Justice Crabbe said the parallel tabulation exercise, which was sufficiently tested in 2008, would equip CODEO with adequate information to confidently verify the 2012 presidential results.
Prof Emmanuel Gyimah Boadi, Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), said transparency and fairness was the key drivers of election peacefulness and credibility.
He said CODEO was poised to play its part in the prosecution of a national agenda to achieve yet other peaceful and credible polls in 2012 as it has been doing since 2000, adding that "this gathering is to unveil to the general Ghanaian public series of interventions CODEO has advocated for support in the coming elections."
Prof Boadi said CODEO has enjoyed the cooperation and support of the Electoral Commission, National Commission for Civic Education, Security services, and the Media and Development partners who share the same goal of ensuring the will of the people of Ghana prevailed in Ghanaian elections.
He expressed his appreciation to USAID and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UK Aid) who are generously funding CODEO 2012 election support programs.
Prof Boadi noted that election 2012 provides yet another opportunity to consolidate Ghana's electoral credibility and peacefulness, and strengthen the country's reputation as a beacon of hope for Africa democracy.
Source:GNA
Prof Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, former Chair of the Electoral Commission and Co-Chair of the CODEO, announced this at the launch of the USAID sponsored project in Accra.
CODEO, made up of 36 secular and faith-based civil society organizations, has independently observed every election in Ghana since 2000 and it is a Coalition dedicated to promoting free, fair and transparent elections through non-partisan election observation.
Prof Justice Crabbe said from March 24th to May 7th CODEO will deploy 650 field observers to scientifically sample polling stations across the country adding that " CODEO with the technical assistance of the Center Democratic Development (CDD), has developed a BVR checklist, prepared a training manual and sampled the 650 polling stations that will be monitored."
"From the data that will be gathered from the BVR observation, CODEO will produce two baseline reports that will form the basis for other interventions and future advocacy activities. These reports would also be shared with the media and the Ghanaian public," he said.
Prof Justice Crabbe, who is a former Supreme Court Justice, said CODEO will undertake the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) method of observing elections, complemented by the traditional observation on Election Day.
For these activities, he said, the Coalition will recruit, train and deploy 4,000 observers including 1,200 Rapid Response Observers and whiles the regular observers will provide general reports on the elections at their polling stations, the rapid response observers will in addition to their regular monitoring duties, use SMS technology to transmit results from their polling stations to the CODEO Information Center to feed our parallel vote tabulation database.
Prof Justice Crabbe said the parallel tabulation exercise, which was sufficiently tested in 2008, would equip CODEO with adequate information to confidently verify the 2012 presidential results.
Prof Emmanuel Gyimah Boadi, Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), said transparency and fairness was the key drivers of election peacefulness and credibility.
He said CODEO was poised to play its part in the prosecution of a national agenda to achieve yet other peaceful and credible polls in 2012 as it has been doing since 2000, adding that "this gathering is to unveil to the general Ghanaian public series of interventions CODEO has advocated for support in the coming elections."
Prof Boadi said CODEO has enjoyed the cooperation and support of the Electoral Commission, National Commission for Civic Education, Security services, and the Media and Development partners who share the same goal of ensuring the will of the people of Ghana prevailed in Ghanaian elections.
He expressed his appreciation to USAID and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UK Aid) who are generously funding CODEO 2012 election support programs.
Prof Boadi noted that election 2012 provides yet another opportunity to consolidate Ghana's electoral credibility and peacefulness, and strengthen the country's reputation as a beacon of hope for Africa democracy.
Source:GNA
EC assures public of credible voter register
Mr Kwadwo Sarfo Kantanka, Deputy Electoral Commissioner in charge of operations, has assured the general public of the Commission's preparedness to produce credible voter register for the December general elections.
He, therefore, appealed to all political parties and stakeholders to collaborate with the Electoral Commission (EC) to make the upcoming biometric registration exercise incident free.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka said this at the Eastern Regional Dialogue on biometric voter registration for political parties' representatives and staff of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), in Koforidua on Wednesday.
He said the EC had given the necessary training to its field staff and was expecting to gain a good voter register.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka urged the various political parties to be very vigilant during the exercise to ensure that foreigners and minors did not take part in the exercise.
"If we all contribute our quota to the exercise, Ghana would have the best register for this year's general election".
Mr Sarfo Kantanka cautioned that the EC would not entertain any person, group of persons and individuals who would try to disrupt the exercise adding that the EC would not hesitate to hand over such persons to the security agencies for the necessary action to be taken against them.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka also cautioned political parties not to "bus" their supporters from one area to another to register but rather allow each and every one to register at where he or she resides.
He allayed fears of double registration and said any such malpractice would be detected during and after the exercise.
Alhaji Oman Bodinga, the Eastern Regional first Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), expressed the party's confidence in the EC as far as the biometric registration is concerned based on the pilot exercise so far conducted.
He said if the whole exercise was conducted in that same manner, there was no way anybody could doubt the credibility of the voter register.
The Eastern Regional Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Anthony Gyampoh, urged the EC to ensure that all the necessary logistics were provided to the registration centers to make the exercise smooth.
Source:GNA
He, therefore, appealed to all political parties and stakeholders to collaborate with the Electoral Commission (EC) to make the upcoming biometric registration exercise incident free.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka said this at the Eastern Regional Dialogue on biometric voter registration for political parties' representatives and staff of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), in Koforidua on Wednesday.
He said the EC had given the necessary training to its field staff and was expecting to gain a good voter register.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka urged the various political parties to be very vigilant during the exercise to ensure that foreigners and minors did not take part in the exercise.
"If we all contribute our quota to the exercise, Ghana would have the best register for this year's general election".
Mr Sarfo Kantanka cautioned that the EC would not entertain any person, group of persons and individuals who would try to disrupt the exercise adding that the EC would not hesitate to hand over such persons to the security agencies for the necessary action to be taken against them.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka also cautioned political parties not to "bus" their supporters from one area to another to register but rather allow each and every one to register at where he or she resides.
He allayed fears of double registration and said any such malpractice would be detected during and after the exercise.
Alhaji Oman Bodinga, the Eastern Regional first Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), expressed the party's confidence in the EC as far as the biometric registration is concerned based on the pilot exercise so far conducted.
He said if the whole exercise was conducted in that same manner, there was no way anybody could doubt the credibility of the voter register.
The Eastern Regional Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Anthony Gyampoh, urged the EC to ensure that all the necessary logistics were provided to the registration centers to make the exercise smooth.
Source:GNA
Upper East girds up for Biometric Exercise
The Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday held a media dialogue in the Upper East Region on the biometric registration exercise to ascertain the level of preparedness and the processes involved in the exercise.
Mr Bruce Ayisi, Regional Director of EC, said the dialogue was to provide information to the media on the exercise and to receive feed back to enhance the EC's work in the region regarding the exercise.
Mr Ayisi said the EC had clustered all 23,000 polling stations nationwide into clusters to ensure effectiveness and the use of biometric kits. Mr Ayisi said movement schedules have been prepared and six EC officials would be allocated to work for 10 days in a clustered polling station.
He said in the Upper East Region, as in other regions, four polling stations would be grouped to form one cluster and would be managed by six officials and a biometric kit given to each station to work for 10days.
Mr Ayisi said the clusters were made convenient to allow everybody to register within the forty days and there was no need for people to rush particularly for the first 10 days.
He said public educators were on the ground to create awareness of the movement schedules and advised that people should register at a place convenient to them.
He also assured the public that the biometric kit would function effectively even in the remotest communities where there was no electricity.
Source: GNA
Mr Bruce Ayisi, Regional Director of EC, said the dialogue was to provide information to the media on the exercise and to receive feed back to enhance the EC's work in the region regarding the exercise.
Mr Ayisi said the EC had clustered all 23,000 polling stations nationwide into clusters to ensure effectiveness and the use of biometric kits. Mr Ayisi said movement schedules have been prepared and six EC officials would be allocated to work for 10 days in a clustered polling station.
He said in the Upper East Region, as in other regions, four polling stations would be grouped to form one cluster and would be managed by six officials and a biometric kit given to each station to work for 10days.
Mr Ayisi said the clusters were made convenient to allow everybody to register within the forty days and there was no need for people to rush particularly for the first 10 days.
He said public educators were on the ground to create awareness of the movement schedules and advised that people should register at a place convenient to them.
He also assured the public that the biometric kit would function effectively even in the remotest communities where there was no electricity.
Source: GNA
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
NPP urges the youth to participate in biometric registration exercise
The Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Tuesday appealed to the youth across the country to take active part in the upcoming biometric voters registration exercise slated for March 24-May 4.
Mr Emmanuel Attafuah-Danso, NPP Deputy National Youth Organizer in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said the youth, had a bigger stake in the present direction of the nation.
He said the youth needed to be vigorous in all issues that affected governance in the country, stressing that the NPP Youth Wing was fully aware of the fact that being a responsible and active citizen went far beyond the remits of participation in the electoral process.
Mr Attafuah-Danso said it was critical and vital on all and sundry, especially the youth, to ensure that they took interest in every process that would lead to the selection of national leaders and the electoral process.
He said available statistics indicated that the youth constituted an overwhelming proportion of the population while they were encumbered with the most challenges and constraints.
Source: GNA
"Though these challenges and constraints are daunting, we believe that it should rather serve as the motivation to the youth to get involved in the selection of credible leaders," he said.
The NPP Youth Wing therefore urged all youths, including students, to register when the exercise commences on Saturday, March 24.
The statement called for the protection of the sanctity of the process by aiding officials in identifying all possible flaws that could emanate in the compilation of the register within the law.
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