EC schools political party executives on peaceful electioneering process

The Western Regional Office of the Electoral Commission (EC) has called on political party executives to ensure that this year’s elections is conducted in a peaceful atmosphere to prove Ghana’s political stability to the outside world.

Mr. Steve Opoku-Mensah who made the call a day’s workshop on the impending election, said “Ghana has been a beacon of peace; therefore, the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections is a test of time which must be peaceful and successful as in previous ones.”

He urged political party executives to educate their supporters and polling agents on the electoral process as well as conducting themselves at the polling stations, whilst observing vigilance to address election malpractices.

“We expect polling agents to play their role effectively and efficiently so that the election results will be acceptable to all stakeholders”.

Six political party executives present at the workshop were the National Democratic Congress, the New Patriotic Party, Convention People’s Party, People’s Progressive Party, People’s National Party and the United People’s Party.

Answering a question on the validity of the old and new Voter Identification Cards (ID), the Regional Electoral Officer made it clear that the old one was in use now because work on the new biometric voter ID cards had not completed.

Madam Rebecca Kabukie Adjalo, a Commission Member said arrangement would be made for political parties to visit the EC coordinating operations room (strong room) for them to have practical knowledge of the place.

She said since political parties play pivotal roles in the election, there was the need for the executives to “ensure that all the structures were in place” to ensure discipline in their activities.

Madam Adjalo stressed the need for all the political parties to fulfill obligations expected of them under the constitution.

The workshop was on the theme “enhancing the credibility of the 2012 elections”.

Topics treated were “the inbuilt integrity of Ghana’s Electoral Process,” “the role and importance of polling agents”, and “EC-political party collaboration”.**