Mixed reactions have greeted the Electoral Commission’s (EC) announcement to implement some reforms in a bid to make the electoral process, especially in 2016 better.
The Electoral Commission(EC) has indicated that it will be rolling out series of reforms ahead of the 2016 election to avert the needless technical challenges that characterized the 2012 elections.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Tdg5qySzuLBnzUXJIiAig3qUHrUWs8VH”]Some of these reforms include the provision of double biometric machines at each polling station and also the expansion of the strong room to make it more accessible to the various political parties.
But Bernard Mornah of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) and Ivor Greenstreet of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) say although the reforms are welcomed, it was done under the “cover of darkness.”
They also say it will not serve the needed purpose if all the political parties are not involved in the implementation process.
Bernard Mornah explained that “if we have appropriate polling centers and these results are declared there, there won’t be the need for the so-called strong room that brings all the forms of tension that are not necessary or whatsoever.”
“We think that they have not yet listened to the political parties. They have to sit with the political parties so that we can agree, which areas we think are gray areas, which areas we think that we can work on particularly towards election 2016,” he added.
In an interview with Citi News the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyapong welcomed the reforms adding that it was long overdue.
“These are reforms that we have been advocating. Am not saying that they have picked it from the reforms we sent to them, but we are happy. Even if they picked it, it means they support it,” he said.
He added that “I think If we can resolve the issue of the collation, as for the strong room it is there just in name. We were advocating for a much bigger place maybe outside the electoral commission. In other countries, there is a big place like a conference center and as the results come in they get ratified before they are declared. So I think so far we are quite happy with some of the reforms by the EC.”
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin