Election 2020: Motorbikes must be 100m away from polling stations – Police declares

The leadership of the Ghana Police Service has named motorbikes as one of the main tools used by 'political junkies' to perpetrate electoral violence.

In light of this, the Inspector General of Police has declared that motorbikes will be kept away from polling centres on the election day.

According to him, leadership of the police have decided to apply a 100 metre rule at all polling centres across the country, as regards the use of motorbikes on December 7.

Speaking at a press briefing on security arrangements ahead of December 7, he said the police has observed that most of the electoral violence undertaken in Ghana are facilitated with motorbikes.

“The motorbikes; I don’t want to say that day people should not use motorbikes at all but at least, about 100 metres from the polling station you cannot bring a motorbike…If you come there (with it) we’ll prevent you from coming closer,” the IGP said.

While giving further details on the new arrangement he said “the reason is that most of the time people who want to snatch ballot boxes use motorbikes…”

The IGP also gave assurances that that service personnel who will be deployed to the various polling stations will be well behaved.

In relation to how the over 6,178 flashpoints identified across the country will be handled, the IGP announced that standby police force and patrols will be deployed to such areas as part of preventive measures.