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For the general elections in 2024, the Electoral Commission (EC) intended to end polls at 3 p.m. rather than 5 p.m. in order to allow for transparent vote tallying before dusk.
Speaking to attendees at the National Peace Council’s inter-party dialogue and stock-taking conference in Accra on Thursday, December 14, 2023, EC Chair Jean Mensa stated that the proposal is grounded in prior experience.
“In 2020, 70 per cent of our polling centres had a voter threshold of 500 and below.
“This time we intend to ensure that all our polling station centers have a threshold of 500 voters and below,” she said.
In the same vein, she said, “We will increase the number of our polling stations nationwide.”
“We believe that this will go a long way to reduce the long queues that characterise our elections and allow for a smooth, seamless, hustle-free voting process,” she added.
She said: “In 2020, it took voters not more than five minutes to cast their votes due to the introduction of this policy.
“Based on our 2020 experience and also feedback from several observer groups we propose to close the polls at 3:00 pm.”
According to our experience in 2020, the majority of voters had cast their ballots by 1:00 pm, leaving 70% of our polling places empty. This was made possible by the majority of polling places lowering their threshold to 500 voters each.
This was used in conjunction with the reliable verification tools that were placed at the polling places. We really believe that by stopping the polls at 3:00 pm, we will have enough time to count and collate the results during the day, which will foster the much-needed orderliness and transparency,” Mrs. Mensa stated.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
