The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) \u00a0has criticized the Electoral Commission over what it terms a lukewarm attitude towards the elections scheduled for November 7, 2016.<\/p>\n
According to CODEO, the commission’s lackadaisical attitude towards the polls which comes off in barely seven months is worrying.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>, the National Coordinator for CODEO, Albert Arhin, expressed disappointment that the Electoral Commission is yet to begin publicity campaigns few weeks to the limited voter\u2019s registration exercise.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”gJRqnBMvsRlHIrWXJNGFp4K1zuaRq836″]\u201cWe are going to have a limited registration and till date, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve seen any poster outside indicating that people should come out on the 28th<\/sup>\u00a0of April to register; neither have I heard any jingle on air talking about registration. And I think it is not good enough. We have few weeks to the registration and there is nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Arhin, who has many years of experience working with the EC in the past,\u00a0charged the current leadership to ensure\u00a0some urgency in its work.<\/p>\n “The commission must\u00a0put some urgency in some of the things they do so that we finally get to November 7 and we are done.\u00a0I think they have to expedite action on some of the things that they do, so as to bring everybody along with them and then we achieve the target,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Limited registration exercise<\/strong><\/p>\n The Electoral Commission has scheduled to hold a limited voter registration exercise from April 28 to May 8th to register voters who have now turned 18, as well as first time voters.<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t feature Mahama in voter registration ad\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The EC recently\u00a0denied some media reports<\/a><\/span><\/strong> suggesting that it featured President John Mahama in its electronic media\u00a0advertisements for the upcoming registration exercise.<\/p>\n An advert, which features President Mahama urging the country\u2019s youth to go out and register when the EC opens the register for new voters, sparked rumors of a\u00a0collaboration between the presidency and the EC, which is meant\u00a0to be independent.<\/p>\n The advert, which forms part of President Mahama\u2019s campaign strategy, features\u00a0one of the rare cases where an incumbent President appears in an advert with the average\u00a0voter to discuss electoral issues.<\/p>\n But the EC in a brief statement on its website, said it did not sanction the advert in question.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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