Journalists with EC accreditation can vote on election day – Jean Mensa

Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa has said journalists with certified accreditation will be allowed permission to vote on election day on December 7, 2020.

The development comes after names of some journalists, and media entities were omitted from this years Special Voting list after it was compiled by the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and the National Media Commission (NMC).

“It is important to mention that the Commission received a number of names well after the deadline. While some were considered, others came a little too late after the database had been frozen. Once the database is frozen no changes or transfers can be made. All lists received after the data freezes could not be processed.”

“Unfortunately, we rather had an issue with our media partners who have collaborated with us all this while. There were some discrepancies regarding the lists submitted by the GJA. The soft copy of the list was different from the hard copy which contained more applicants. Unfortunately, this was not made known to the Electoral Commission’s team.”

“To mitigate this, the Commission has instructed its field officials to give preferential treatment to media personnel who possess the Accreditation Cards of the Electoral Commission on election day.”

Mrs Jean Mensa made this known at a press briefing in Accra on Monday, November 30, 2020.

The EC Chairperson stated the Commission regrets the action and assured all journalists, the GJA and the NMC of their support.

Meanwhile, a total of 109,557 persons made up of security personnel, media and staff of the EC will on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, cast their ballots in the Special Voting Exercise.

The exercise, according to the EC will take place at selected locations in the 275 constituencies.