CePTOM engages 2,500 officials for 2020 elections

Ato Bonful, Programmes Director, Centre for Performance Tracking and Outcomes Mapping (CePTOM), on Thursday said the Centre has engaged 2,500 accredited officials to observe the general elections across the country.

He said these officials would be in all 16 Regions at 100 constituencies in line with global best practices.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra, Mr Bonful said the 2020 elections would arguably witness the highest number of independent election observers both local and international because of the times.

“The 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Ghana are being held at a time of heightened tensions and new protocols including mandatory biometric verification for all voters whilst simultaneously adhering to Covid-19 protocols,” he said.

Speaking on the topic: “Towards transparent and credible elections in Ghana 2020: the role of CePTOM in ensuring free, fair and incident-free elections,” he said CePTOM would examine whether the system performed and delivered what it was intended to achieve.

However, he said there was no group currently monitoring the performance of the election management system and the electoral processes towards their intended outcomes.

Mr Bonful said the Centre since 2011 had focused mostly on tracking performance and mapping outcomes of systems and processes to ensure attainment of intended outcomes.

He said the centre had examined the entire election process in project management mode by looking at factors, including the EC and their systems and processes in the entire election process from the over 38,000 polling stations to the District and Regional offices as well as the national collation centre of the EC.

Also, the effectiveness of the technological tools, adherence to the legal provisions of Constitutional Instrument 127, and the ability of the officers to effectively manage the voting centres and Political Parties and their adherence to the rules and their roles in ensuring free, fair and incident-free elections.

He said the Centre would also observe comportment of electorates, how long they would take to go through the process, turn out and adherence to COVID-19 Protocols.

“We will observe whether voters in rural areas who are unable to afford a face mask will be assisted with a free one or be turned away,” he said. He said the centre would examine how all the protocols will be enforced by the COVID-19 Ambassadors stationed by the EC to apply lessons learnt in future elections.