Losers Should Accept Defeat -Afari-Gyan

Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has said the coming elections could pass off smoothly without any hitch if the rules and procedures were followed by all.

He said it was difficult to experience defeat, but the reality was that someone would win and others lose in the coming elections so the losers should accept defeat, rather than contend results based on often unproven and lopsided accounts.

Dr Afari-Gyan said this when speaking at the Volta Region’s version of the EC’s Dialogue with Parliamentary Candidates in Ho on Monday.

He said the occurrences of many underage people in the voters register was worrying especially considering the fact that some illegalities could have been organized.

He passed pictures of the supposed prospective kid voters round and asked that politicians help by condemning the practice and declaring that they (candidates) did not need the votes of these minors.

Dr Afari-Gyan, as part of his presentation, gave a step-by-step progression of voting activities from registration through exhibition of the voters’ list to balloting and counting of votes.

He said people should appreciate the work of the EC and stop bashing it at the least opportunity even for slips in registration of voters for which it (Commission) had in-built procedures to manage.

Dr Afari-Gyan said candidates should ensure that their agents at the polling stations and collation centres were formalized with the EC.

He said there should be no shortages of ballot papers on Election Day as each polling station would be supplied and properly documented.