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A public broadcast of the collation of presidential election votes during general elections is being strongly pushed by the opposition NDC.
A lengthy list of modifications that the party feels could greatly increase the polls’ credibility is included in a document titled “NDC Position Paper on Electoral Reforms.” A year-round voter registration program that would allow anyone turning 18 to walk into an EC office and register is one of the main proposals.
“This is an all-year round system under which citizens who turn 18 or who have not previously registered may visit any district office of the EC and register as voters”, the document states.
The party thinks that by holding registration at its district offices on the last Friday of each month, the EC could reduce any potential costs that this might cause.
It adds that doing so will make it possible for party representatives and candidate agents to attend and keep an eye on the ongoing registration procedure. The party anticipates four significant ramifications if approved;
- That the Voters’ Register must be exhibited all year round.
- There should be a cut-off point for the continuous registration.
- Specific periods should be set aside for the limited registration of persons who have just attained the voting age or who may not previously have registered as voters after every census or after every 7 years.
- No completely new voters’ registers involving the queueing up of all persons of voting age to register must be compiled.
Voting period
The party also wants the EC to maintain the current 7am to 5pm voting time as against heeding to calls to have an earlier closing time. The NDC says a 10-hour allows a broad range of citizens including those with work or other commitments, to participate in the election.
“It also provides flexibility for voters to choose a convenient time to cast their votes, accommodating different schedules. For example, a very large percentage of the voters are farmers and fishermen and would rather take advantage of the cool mornings to go to their farms and to sea and come and vote in the afternoons which is usually after 3p.m. Ending voting at 3p.m. is a sure way of disenfranchising them,” the party posited.
Election Security
The Opposition party is asking for the military not to be deployed at registration and voting centres except as stand-by forces at vantage points to be called in by the police when required. The Military has in recent years come under intense public criticisms for its handling of election protection.
The party therefore believes having such an arrangement could reduce the potential for voter intimidation and undue influence, which can undermine the fairness and integrity of elections.
Vote Collation and Dispute resolution
The Party is asking that its agents and that of other parties should be enabled by regulations to oversee the transmission of collated results at all the various stages of the collation process and at both ends of the results transmission. Such transmitted collated results, it says, must be confirmed and validated by the party agents at the receiving end to be acceptable.
The NDC also believes that greater transparency could be achieved by broadcasting live the EC Head Office’s process of collating the presidential vote as soon as the constituency presidential results are known. It believes that in addition to highlighting the possibility of reducing vote tampering, it could increase trust in the veracity of the results.
In addition, the Election Adjudication Committee (EAC) should be established by the Electoral Commission in order to examine contested results prior to their official announcement.
Stakeholder CSOs, EC officials, political party representatives, and agents of independent candidates who ran in the presidential election should all be members of the EAC. Additionally, it wants the EAC to be replicated at the constituency level.
