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Hundreds of uniformed personnel reported to the Independence Square on Monday morning where a short exercise was carried out to officially deploy them.

[contextly_sidebar id=”WC2MnqQaklHKJqO3VHcelfyipGdju1eM”]Buses were also available to convey the personnel to their respective regions.

Ahead of the formal deployment, some police officers have expressed worry they may not be able to vote in this year’s elections because they could not do so in the early voting exercise held on Thursday [December 1] and Sunday [December 4].

This is in spite of assurances from their superiors the necessary arrangements will be made for them to exercise their franchise.

Some of the officers who spoke to Citi News’ Caleb Kudah said, they were uncertain about the possible arrangements that will enable them cast their ballot at their polling stations and effectively carry out their duty of maintaining law and order at another polling station.

“I haven’t voted yet and I will be dispatched to the Central region. It is very bad but I have to wait for my commander. I want to vote before I go.”

Another officer said most police officers were anxious about voting and appear to be unwilling to be transferred to another region to serve during the elections since they have not been given the opportunity to cast their ballot.

Citi News reports indicates that hundreds of police and other security officers including those in the top hierarchy could not find their names in the register for special voters hence could not vote in the early voting exercise held separately on Thursday and Sunday.

The Electoral Commission (EC) in a statement explained that some officers could not vote in the special exercise because they submitted wrong details in their application to the EC for the exercise hence their names were not added to the list.

The Commission therefore, called on the police top hierarchy to make special arrangements to enable officers who couldn’t vote, do so on December 7 when the general polls are held.

‘No police will be disenfranchised’

Meanwhile, the Police administration has assured that no officer will be disenfranchised in Wednesday’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The Director of the Police Public Affairs, Superintendent Cephas Arthur told Citi News, “the administration will ensure all personnel are able to exercise their franchise”.

He said the Inspector General of Police has instructed all Regional, Divisional and District Commands to devise a plan to ensure all personnel who were unable to vote during the  special voting exercise do so on election day.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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The hawkers who ply their trade along the busy highway claim that they are forced to sell on the motorway due to the lack of jobs in the country.

The hawkers mainly sell to drivers, passengers and the toll booth attendants. They sell everything from edibles like plantain chips, ice cream, bread and household items like tissue paper.

They seem unperturbed about the danger of trading at the peril of their lives.

“People do not have enough money these days, because after deducting your expenses, you are left with just a small fraction of money which cannot be enough to fend for yourself; I know it is dangerous to be selling here but I cannot stay home and starve and even if it means been ran over by a car in my quest to get some money to fend for myself, its better but God will not let it be so’’ Maame Yaa, a peanut seller told Citi News.

Unemployment Factor

For Kwabena Appiah, who sells plantain chips, the unavailability of a designated place for selling coupled with the unemployment situation has forced them on the streets where they try to make ends meet.  He told Citi News: “We won’t get anywhere else to sell our stuff should the authorities sack us from here; I cannot go and sit in the market, this is the only place I can stand and sell’’

He revealed that the Mayor of Accra tried sacking them from the area but failed.

For Kofi who also sells chips, their selling at the toll booth is rather a benefit to most drivers who ply that stretch of road.

“The market these days is no longer lucrative, If I had finished school and working now, it would have been good, much better than this hot scorching sun that we find ourselves in’’ he lamented.

He told Citi News, their wares have been seized several times by the municipal assembly leading to loss of revenue.

Blackmail or not?

As the elections draw closer, most of the traders are threatening to vote out the current administration should there be any attempts to sack them from the toll booths.

“As for the elections, we now know what’s happening because it is not the adults who will be voting, majority of the voters are we the youth , we can only vote for them when we see a change in the economy’’ said plantain chips seller Kwabena Appiah.

Most of the traders who spoke to Citi News  dared the municipal assembly to try sacking them and risk losing their votes.

“They can never eject us from this place after all they haven’t created enough  jobs for us to benefit from and even when they do such jobs are always created outside the country so they dare not try it”, Esther, a tissue paper seller told Citi News.

For Maame Akyia, who sells iced water, the hardship in the economy was taking a toll on her finances as she’s had to take on more to cater for her children. She was however to quick to add that, she will resist any attempts by the authorities to eject them from the area.

She however had some advice for the Electoral Commission (EC) saying “I will surely vote in this year’s elections but the EC must be extra diligent in their work this year because we are very serious, we cannot be working for people to take the glory; we don’t want any situation where there is chaos because someone slept on the job’’

Meanwhile efforts to reach the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly for comments on this development were not successful.

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By: Lorrencia Nkrumah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Association rather insists the Police Service should be focusing on ways to police social media to prevent the mischief they believe a possible ban on social media will curb.

[contextly_sidebar id=”1EFWmNwBGsSwlB88lOZPOqlgbii50524″]The Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor yesterday [Thursday] revealed the Police were considering the ban as a move to ensure order on social media platforms on the day of the general election.

Shutdown could mean a blackout for media

Nonetheless, the General Secretary of the GJA, Dave Agbanu, has said the Police Service should not even be weighing a potential shutdown on social media as a security option because such a move will hamper the media’s attempts at information dissemination on the day of the polls.

Speaking to Citi News, Mr. Agbanu said, “Our advice is that it shouldn’t be considered at all. It shouldn’t be an option because social media has become a tool for journalism and there for shutting it down means there could be a blackout on news and information flow during the election period.”

Police social media instead

Mr. Agbanu posited that the Police Service would be better served putting in place measures to police activities on social media during the polls.

“People will cause mischief whether we have social media or not. What the police should be thinking about… is the fact that they are not even able to use technology that can police social media and prevent people from causing mischief.”

“If we get a handle on what should be done to police social media, I don’t think that we would be having this discussion now,” he added.

Backlash against potential social media shutdown

The Police Service’s indication they were considering the possibility of shutting down social media sites across the country on Election Day was met with criticism from from a variety of stakeholders.

Groups like the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) have rejected the Police Administration’s reasoning for such a move saying any restriction on social media would tantamount to a violation of the freedom of expression.

Kinna Likimani, the Project Lead of Ghana Decides, a social media platform dedicated to election coverage in Ghana also described the Police Service’s decision to shut down social media platforms as an affront to the tenets of the 1992 constitution.

IGP ignited debate

But a Deputy General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho said the IGP should be commended for igniting debate with the announcement of the possible shutdown of social media and disclosing their intended move ahead of the polls.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citfmonline.com/Ghana

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She noted that in 2012, 11,000 people were added to the voters’ register in Jomoro and this compelled her party to closely monitor the just ended limited registration exercise to understand better what happened last year.

[contextly_sidebar id=”p1vYzhsvEgdGjnSfTkcbWShhYmjwlDUn”]Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Samia Nkrumah indicated that their polling agents alerted them about the presence of non-Ghanaians.

“…Whenever our polling agents called us, we went to see what was happening and indeed we did see a big number of non-Ghanaians.”

She explained that a number of Nzema people reside in Ivory Coast who came in to register but this did not account for the hundreds of people who were bused in from towns on the Ghana and Ivory Coast border.

“…But there are some Ivorians as well who should not be voting in the district of Jomoro because what is the point of demarcating our country into different districts if we can see an influx… like when you see hundreds of people coming in on buses.”

She however commended the Electoral Commission officers whose thorough assessments of prospective registrants revealed that there were particular guarantors guaranteeing the nationality of scores of individuals who were not from the electoral area.

Checks by the EC officers also revealed that hundreds of the people coming in to register from outside shared identical addresses or gave out fictitious addresses according to the former CPP Chairperson.

“These people coming to register did not know their addresses, they could not say where they were living and in some cases they gave fictitious addresses and in other cases, hundreds of people gave the same address which was non-existent,” Ms. Nkrumah stated.

High number of registrants in NDC, NPP strongholds

The former CPP Chairperson also scrutinized the registration patterns in the strongholds of the parliamentary candidates of the two main political parties, the National Democratic Congress and the opposition New Patriotic Party, which recorded unusually high numbers of registered persons per her assessment.

According to the former Jomoro MP, the average number that registered daily in their strongholds was close to 100, which was significantly higher than other places with similar population which recorded an average of 15-20 persons registering a day.

“So when it is the stronghold of one candidate or another, the electoral area registered a very high number of voters,” she remarked.

Jomoro residents outnumbered by outsiders

Ms. Nkrumah further bemoaned the fact that these developments have set the tone for an election that will be unfair to the people of Jomoro since they will be outnumbered by outsiders.

“This can have an impact on the residents of Jomoro because if we go on by this trend, the number of voters outside the district of Jomoro is going to be more than the number of residents… we cannot conduct elections in this way and say they are fair.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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