Election Challenges Resolved, Affected Areas To Vote By December 19 – EC

The Electoral Commission will on Thursday, December 19, hold elections in some four electoral areas where polls could not be held during the district assembly election on Tuesday, December 17.

Reports of challenges with ballot papers and the voters’ registers at these areas, caused the Electoral Commission to call off the elections.

With a total of 6,700 electoral areas opened for the elections on Tuesday, the EC said some 57,000 candidates were registered to contest the polls. Out of the figure, 18,519 were vying to become assembly members, while 38,520 were vying to be Unit Committee members.

JoyNews’ Correspondent in North East Region, Martina Bugri, reported that the EC had postponed elections in the Moshie Zongo electoral area after a disagreement among the candidates over changes in their positions on the ballot paper.

In the Awutu Constituency in the Central Region, some unit committee aspirants could not find their names on the voters’ register.

Speaking on the development, Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Dr Serebour Quaicoe said measures have been put in place to resolve the issues and allow the people to exercise their civic rights.

According to him, apart from places that the people refused to participate in the elections, all other areas that couldn’t partake because of technical challenges will get an opportunity to do so.

“There are about five areas that could not vote because people couldn’t find their names and some aspirants also complained about a swap on the ballot paper, all this is being taken care of. We are printing new papers and voting will be done tomorrow.”

“For a place like Tema, even though we were able to reprint their ballot paper by 10 am, the aspirants said it was late and asked for the exercise to take place today. So they will vote today [Wednesday] but the four other places left will vote tomorrow,” he explained.

Dr Serebour Quaicoe who was also on PM Express on the JoyNews channel, justified a request for GH¢444,846,663 by the Commission to compile a new voters’ register before the 2020 general elections.

He argued that the numerous challenges with the biometric verification system can be resolved when the system is changed.

By: Myjoyonline.com