EU Election observers witness special voting at Trade Fair Centre

Three officials of the European Union Observation Mission (EU EOM) on Tuesday witnessed the special voting at the six polling stations at the Trade Fair International Centre in Accra.

The team interacted with the electoral officials, and representatives of political parties on the ongoing exercise. The team will visit other polling stations by the close of the exercise.

Mr Giovanni Caligiuri, a member of the Mission, said so far the exercise had been peaceful.

He said the 40-long-term observers were deployed across the country to witness the polls, after strictly observing all procedures and rules set by the Ghanaian authorities to protect Ghanaians and the observers from COVID-19.

Mr Caligiuri said Mr Javier Nart, Chief Observer, who is also a Member of the European Parliament from Spain, would issue a preliminary statement after the elections and publish a final report, with recommendations for future elections.

Mr Kofi Frimpong, District Electoral Officer, La Dadekotopon Municipality, in an interview with the GNA, expressed satisfaction about the processes, saying all the necessary arrangements including adherence to COVID-19 protocols, were put in place to ensure a smooth exercise.

He said before 1000 hours, more than 1000 people had voted without any difficulties or mayhem because of the measures EC had put in place.

Mr Frimpong said only a few people did not find their names on the register due to anomalies on the data submitted by the institutions to the Electoral Commission.

He explained that the institutions, unfortunately, failed to add the contacts of the people on the list of special voters to the Commission to contact them and had to send the names back for rectification but to no avail.

Mr Frimpong said the security personnel and other institutions scheduled to vote on a special day but did not find their details could still vote on December 7.

He said, “for the Police, in particular, the IGP has directed all police personnel who could not vote on the special voting day to report to their respective commanders for their postings to be restricted to where they registered for them to vote”.

The Trade Fair Centre is expecting 3, 749 voters to cast their ballot at during the special voting exercise.