Eleven organisations to observe Ghanaian elections

The Electoral Commission (EC) has said seven local and four international organisations have been given accreditation to observe the December 7 elections. Mr Damoah-Agyeman, Chief Director of Elections, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, said the United Nations Observer Mission, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Commonwealth Secretariat have not applied for observer status.

He mentioned the local groups as Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), National Union of Ghana Students, Ghana Legal Literacy and Resource Foundation, Free and Fair Election International, National Integrity Protection Society, Friends of the Alphabet and Forum of Religious Bodies.

The International Observer Missions comprise the diplomatic missions in Ghana, which are under the co-ordination of the British High Commission and three others. The others are IFES/Sierra Leone National Electoral Commission Observer group, IFES/AAEA delegation and Nigeria Electoral Commission.

The diplomatic missions are the Canadian High Commission, European Union, and the embassies of Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United States. Damoah-Agyeman explained that an organisation that wishes to be accredited as an observer shall file an application with the commission and undertake to abide by the laws, egulations, policies and code of conduct governing the elections and its observations.

He said it is the responsibility of an observer group to ensure that its members are well versed in the rules, regulations and procedures as well as the skills of election observations. Damoah-Agyeman said unless the Returning Officer otherwise permits, access to a polling station shall be limited to a total of four observers per polling station at any given time. He said two observers of each accredited organisation should be allowed access to the constituency centre during the collation of results.

He said only accredited observers wearing the official identification issued by the commission should be allowed access to any polling station or constituency centre. "An observer wearing any identification of a political party or candidate contesting the elections shall not be allowed access to the centre," he said.

He said any organisation that failed to comply with a lawful instruction, directive or order issued by or on behalf of the commission may have its accreditation cancelled. Damoah-Agyeman said in 1996, seven foreign organisations and two local groups formally observed the elections. In addition, some local embassies and organisations also observed the elections for their internal purposes.

According to the EC Code of Conduct for Election Observers, an observer shall have the right to enter any polling station or constituency centre throughout the country to observe the packing and transporting of election materials. He/she also has the right to observe the voting process, counting of votes at the polling stations, collation and declaration of election results at the constituency centres.