EC fails to justify recounting claim

The Electoral Commission on Friday failed to explain to the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) what its chair meant by close results that will trigger recounting.

Charlotte Osei in a recent interview with BBC’s Akwasi Sarpong disclosed that when the December 7 polls become too close to call, the Commission will call for a recount of the total votes cast. At Friday’s meeting, political parties were not satisfied as the EC could not tell how close the election results must be to provoke a recount.

According to the EC at the meeting, it is now going to have a meeting to determine the “closeness” its chair referred to. Speaking in an interview with Onua 95.1 FM after the meeting, New Patriotic Party’s Campaign Manager, Peter Mac Manu, said with the exception of the Commission’s inability to explain the issue of close results, everything went well. He expressed happiness about the police going to help to prevent people from stealing ballots or rigging the elections.

The Communications Director of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Emmanuel Wilson, expressed his disappointment in the EC, saying she had enough time to prepare for an answer on her recounting claim ahead of the IPAC meeting.

The Director of Elections for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, however, disclosed that one of the issues that impressed him so well was the fact that even the police are going to be trained alongside polling agents in the electoral rules and processes. He revealed that his party raised issue about what constitutes overvoting, which was explained to be when the number votes cast exceed the number of persons verified.

In such cases, he added, the results at that polling station will be nullified. Therefore, it was agreed upon that each ballot paper before issuance will be raised up for everybody around to see that it is not more than one.