Don't joke with early voting - Amoako-Tuffuor

NPP Elder Dr Kwame Amoako-Tuffuor has urged members of the main opposition party to take the special voting seriously in this year’s general elections.

Special voting or early voting is done days ahead of the December 7 polls every election year. It is organised for staff of the Electoral Commission, security officers, journalists and others, who will be busy on Election Day.

“I’ll like to entreat all our party members and all citizens of this country that under no circumstances should you play with the special voting. You must count the number of people who come there to vote and let’s have a national result of the numbers that vote on that day so that we do not run into any misfortunes later.

I know what I’m talking about,” he told Class News on Monday, 14 November shortly after the Supreme Court’s dismissal of a case he filed through which he sought the highest court of the land to compel the Electoral Commission (EC) to announce results of the special voting on the same day such votes are cast.

This means that votes cast in the special voting dispensation will be counted along with the ballots cast on Election Day, December 7.

In the suit, Dr Amoako-Tuffuor and two other plaintiffs argued that those who take part in the Special Voting must not be made to wait until Election Day before the results of the early voting are announced.

The plaintiffs argued that section 23 of C.I. 94 – the law that regulates national elections – was at variance with Article 49 of the 1992 Constitution.

Meanwhile, Dr Amoako-Tuffuor has said he accepts the ruling of the court. “I’d like to make it publicly clear that I respect the Supreme Court, I respect their decision. I may have a different opinion altogether because of other issues that I’m aware of. We should back our courts so that they always give us the right decisions and the kinds of things that can move our democracy forward.”