EC assure Ghanaians of meeting statutory obligation

Koforidua, May 4, GNA- Ghanaians have been re-assured that the Electoral Commission (EC), is working around the clock to meet its statutory obligations of conducting the 2008 Election to avoid any constitutional crisis.

The postponement of the voters' registration exercise should not be misconstrued that the EC is incapable of carrying out the polls.

Mr David Kangah, a deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Finance and Administration, who gave the assurance, said despite the unfortunate deferment of exercise, the EC was working hard to ensure free, fair and the most transparent elections.

He was addressing representatives of political parties and media practitioners at Koforidua on Friday, as part of a special regional inter-party advisory committee forum on building stakeholders' confidence on the outcome of the 2008 polls.

It was being organised by the EC in conjunction with the KAB Governance Consult and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Mr Kangah said the assertion by some people that the EC might not be able to conduct the December 7 polls on schedule was far-fetched.

He said the EC did not intend to create crisis since it was aware of the problems such a development might create for the country. Mr Kangah asked Ghanaians to discard suspicions on the operations of the EC and said sufficient regulatory safeguards have been established to prevent manipulation of the elections.

He said the suspicion sometimes stemmed from the failure of political parties to avail their supporters of the rules governing the "game" and rather focus more on unsubstantiated rumours.

Mr Kwadwo Sarfo Kantanka, deputy chairman of the EC in charge of Operations, said Ghana's electoral system had integrity and thrived on consultations and deliberations.

He asked political parties to educate their members on election rules and the art of policing the electoral process.

Representatives of the political parties asked the EC to provide adequate logistics to electoral offices in the regions. They complained that during the recent card replacing exercise, some districts did not have functional vehicles and had to rely on the benevolence of other government agencies to carry-out the

exercise.