Mac Manu to observe Germany's polls

A former National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mac Manu, will be part of the observer missions who will monitor Germany’s election which comes off on September 24, 2017.

Mr. Manu who was prevented from monitoring the controversial Kenyan elections is going to Germany on the invitation of the International Democratic Union.

A statement announcing the arrangement said: “Peter Mac Manu, Honorary Chairman of the Democratic Union of Africa (DUA), an affiliate of the International Democratic Union (IDU), joins, the Election Observer Mission of IDU to witness the Germany’s elections to the Bundestag scheduled for Sunday, 24th September, 2017. Mr. Mac Manu is also former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its 2016 National Campaign Manager for Ghana’s Presidential/Parliamentary elections.”

It added: “Hon. Peter Mac Manu will observe some of the rallies and also have firsthand experience on how the Germans’ conduct their political rallies in recent times. Further, Mr. Mac Manu would have the opportunity to tour some polling stations across some of the 299 voting districts to observe voting conduct in Munich voting district.”

Chancellor, Dr. Angela Merkel, is seeking re-election for the 4th time leading the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the CSU in a coalition with Martin Schulz of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as her main opponent. Other parties include the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the left’s Alternative for German (AfD) which is led by Sahra Wagenknecht and Dietmar Bartsch.

The elections are taking place in all the 299 voting districts across the country. The German’s electoral architecture is transparent and analog – voters are only allowed to vote with pen and paper and not with digital voting machines. All counting takes place by hand in the 70,000 or so voting locations and counting is open to the public.