ALL eligible voters, particularly women, who wear artificial fingernails will have to remove them before they can cast their votes on December 7.
This is because the Electoral Commission (EC) has been informed that such people can easily remove their nails after voting to enable them to vote a second time.
Mr Kwame Boateng, Upper West Regional Electoral Officer, announced this when he presented a paper on "Towards peaceful, free and fair elections — how prepared is the Electoral Commission?" at a day's seminar organised by the International PEN at Wa.
The seminar, which was sponsored by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), attracted 48 participants made up of journalists, political leaders, heads of departments and collaborators in the effort to ensure peaceful elections.
Mr Boateng advised polling agents throughout the country to turn back voters with artificial fingernails if they refuse to comply with the directive.
He said every polling station would be given five per cent additional ballot papers to take care of spoilage and transfers on voting day.
Mr Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah, President of the Ghana Centre of International PEN, said there cannot be free and fair elections when constitutional organs like the National Commission for Civic Education, EC and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice are financially starved.
He said such organs and the state-owned media play important roles in the electoral process and called on the next legislature to ensure that the necessary funding is provided to enable them to carry out their functions effectively.
Mr Anim-Appiah urged journalists not to allow themselves to be swayed by political parties in their reportage as that could be disastrous to nation building.
Mr Frankie Asare-Donkor, Secretary of International PEN, urged all media houses to be fair to all political parties before, during and after the elections.
He blamed some of the media houses for not coming out with credible and accurate stories and urged management of media houses to ensure that all their stories are accurate.
