The Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament has proposed changes to the Public Elections Regulation Bill 2016 regarding provisions on special voting.<\/p>\n
The change effected to the original draft of the legislation will now make it possible for media practitioners to participate in the special voting exercise ahead of election day.<\/p>\n
Media practitioners were not allowed to take part in special voting in the 2012 elections.<\/p>\n
Vice Chairperson of Committee, Kofi Osei Ameyaw told Citi News\u2019<\/strong> Duke Mensah Opoku that, the changes will require the media to get onto the special voters list through the National Media Commission (NMC).<\/p>\n \u201cThe draft had that proposal maintaining the old one but the committee was of the view that the journalist should go through the media commission and I think it is in the right direction because we expect media people to vote and move to their stations where they are going to work or the polling stations where they are going to work and they cannot be taken out of special voters. I\u00a0think that will break down the 4th<\/sup> realm of estate. Their relevance in democracy so I didn\u2019t agree with the original proposal but we are happy that in the one that is laid, there is that provision in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Journalists can vote before election day <\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile the Commission has allayed fears that journalists across the country may not be able to vote prior to the election day, in what is known as special voting for security services and other selected groups.<\/p>\n Some parliamentarians had raised issues with the EC for \u00a0not making provisions for journalists to vote before the election day.<\/p>\n But Mr. Dzapasu \u00a0told Citi News<\/strong>\u00a0an amended constitutional instrument which will allow journalists to participate in the election is currently before Parliament for consideration.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, yesterday [Thursday] evening, I heard on the news that journalists will not vote but I want to assure you that currently the CI 75 that we use is before Parliament and has provisions which covers journalists to take part in a special voting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe provisions have been made, the procedures by which journalists can apply for special voting and all other persons who would\u00a0have to take part in the special voting is currently before Parliament and so lets wait when Parliament passes the bill and we get it and the CI is involved, then at the appropriate time we will let journalists know how and who can apply for the special voting.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament has proposed changes to the Public Elections Regulation Bill 2016 regarding provisions on special voting. The change effected to the original draft of the legislation will now make it possible for media practitioners to participate in the special voting exercise ahead of election day. Media practitioners were not allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":214768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2647,2648,10,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n