Election 2012; EC says it's on course
The Electoral Commission of Ghana is beginning to heed to pressures from the public to make known their programme for the year 2012. The commission, yesterday, granted exclusive access of its events dairy for 2012 to e.tv Ghana news.
The EC says it will begin extensive educational campaigns on the biometric registration system by the end of January.
Its Acting Head of Public Affairs, Christian Owusu Parry, says so far government has released GHS50 million constituting fifty percent of the commission's budget for the election year.
Part of the amount will be used for training supervisors and other party players in the elections. The EC has begun recruiting regional supervisors to this effect.
The EC is, however, waiting for legislative approval from parliament before it takes a final decision on the creation of new constituencies.
The Commission continues to face pressure to make its itinerary for the election year public. Even though the commission's premise in Accra is not as brisk as expected, it is believed that it is beginning to warm up for a great task ahead.
The last district assembly elections held across the country has been described as a failure on the path of the electoral commission and it has been wondered whether same cannot happen in the upcoming general elections.
Christian Owusu Parry, however, says the EC does not anticipate a reoccurrence of the low turnout of electorates during the general election since they are both different.
During the President's encounter with editors on Monday morning, a pollster and editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ben Ephson, suggested a verification of ballot papers but Mr Owusu Parry disagrees with this suggestion.
“We think that the kind of ballot paper we've been printing all this time is very good for any polls. I don't know what verification he wants of the ballot paper. Every ballot paper we have printed in the past has some security features and if it becomes necessary it is always possible for us to verify whether the ballot papers are indeed genuine ballot papers printed by the commission,” he explained.
As much provision is being made by government for the smooth functioning of the EC especially in the upcoming general elections, much is also being expected from the electoral commission.
The commission is being called upon to speed up activities as the public waits in anticipation of the commission’s full program for the year.
By: Aisha Ibrahim, e.tv Ghana
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