Police outline plans to secure collation centres for 2024 election

The Ghana Police Service has announced that it is finalising a plan with the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to ensure that collation centres for the pending 2024 general elections are secured.

Speaking at a stakeholder engagement to brief Civil Society Organisations on the operational plan for the December 7, 2024, polls, on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, indicated that collation centres had been identified as the main areas where disputes arise during elections.

Dr. Akuffo Dampare added that measures being put in place by the police and the EC would ensure that collation centres are well organised and that the election results are collated in an orderly manner.

“We are currently working with the EC to come out with standard collation centres in a way that security would be paramount. Such that at the end of the day, these difficulties that we have, where we go to a collation centre and it is free for all and so disorganised, will be avoided,” he said.

He added that all the collation centres across the country are going to have multiple structures with multiple entrance clearance levels.

“These collation centres are going to be in a fenced wall environment where entrance to the place would be by people who are supposed to be there - the media, civil society, observers, party persons, candidates and their agents.

“Everybody who is supposed to be at the centre would have access to the compound in that fenced wall environment. Then within that fenced wall environment, the facility that would be used would also be enclosed with doors, whereby another set of people who qualify to be there would be the people who would be allowed to enter there,” he added.

The IGP also assured Ghanaians that the National Election Security Taskforce, which he is heading, would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the election is peaceful.

He indicated that even though the elections have been described as very crucial, the police have an election blueprint which has proven to be efficient.

He also sounded a strong caution to individuals and groups who have plans to cause mayhem during the election, saying that they would have nowhere to hide.

Watch the IGP’s remarks in the video below:

BAI/AE