Your proxy voter must be a trustworthy personality - EC

Michael Boadu, the Director of Training at the Electoral Commission (EC), has advised electorate who intend to use a proxy voter to select trustworthy persons to vote according to their choices.

A proxy voter is one who is entrusted with the voting power of an electorate to vote on his or her behalf in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

“You must consider several factors before choosing a Proxy Voter, the person must be a close relation or relations who possibly share the same political party aspirations with you,” he said.

“If not the tendencies of the proxy voter voting according to his or her personal political interest and candidate of choice as against that of the one who chose him or her as proxy is high.”

Mr Boadu said this at a workshop to build the capacity of the Editorial Staff of the Ghana News Agency in the coverage of Election 2020.

Speaking on the Code of Conduct for Election Officials, Mr Boadu said the EC had developed the code to reflect its core values and to guide the day-to-day activities of election officials, both permanent and temporary, appointed by the Commission.

“The Code is developed on the understanding that EC can and should demonstrate to Ghanaians that its work is dictated by standards designed to enhance public confidence and trust in the integrity, neutrality, and transparency of the electoral process,” he said.

He said the quality and standard of performance of electoral officials during electoral activities impact on the credibility of the outcome of the elections and by extension the image of the EC.

Mr Boadu said the electoral officials were not under any obligation to do anything by way of action, attitude or speech, which indicated bias or preference for any political party or candidate in the discharge of their duties.

“Therefore, check all sources and make sure they are the right authority to make an announcement or to speak to,” he said.