National Election Task Force urged to constantly engage political parties ahead of 2020 polls

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has called on the National Election Security Task Force to constantly engage political parties ahead of the upcoming polls.

In its third report on the biometric voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC), CODEO said constantly engaging the stakeholders will bolster confidence in the December 7 elections.

“Towards the conduct of the general elections, CODEO calls on the National Election Security Task Force to constantly engage all key stakeholders including the political parties on security arrangements for the December polls to bolster stakeholder confidence and trust in election security,” the Coalition said in its six-point recommendation.

The Coalition also condemned acts of intimidation, harassment and use of violence at some polling station during the exercise.

“CODEO calls on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Ghana Police Service working with the Attorney General (AG) to act expeditiously to complete all investigations including the violent incidents in Banda which resulted in the death of one young man, as well as the incident in Awutu Senya East in the Central Region and in Dormaa West in the Bono region. Persons found culpable in various criminal breaches of the law should be prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the laws of Ghana,” the Coalition said.

It said police must share updates of these investigations with the Ghanaian public to foster confidence in the security agencies and also server as a deterrent against future incidents of this nature. Failure to enforce the rule of law will erode confidence in the security agencies and the rule of law.

The nationwide voters registration exercise officially end on Thursday, August 6, 2020 followed by a mop-up on Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9.

Although the Commission had a target of registering 15 million applicants, provisional figures indicate that the target has been exceeded and the figures would likely hit 16.5 million.

Read CODEO's full report on the exercise below.