EC to create more polling stations

The Electoral Commissioner, Mrs Charlotte Osei, has said the Commission would be expanding the number of polling stations nationwide to 29,000 for the November 7 General Election.

She said the decision to create more polling stations would reduce long queues and pressure during elections.

It would be recalled that prior to the 2012 General Election, the EC, similarly, increased the number of polling stations from 23,000 to 26,000.

Mrs Osei, who was speaking, in Accra, at a media launch of the Commission’s five-year Strategic Plan and new website, said the EC was well prepared to conduct the elections.

On the Commission’s budget of GHC1.1 billion and an additional GHC100 million for administrative purposes, which was slashed by more than GHC400 million by Parliament, the Commissioner said, whatever money that the EC needed to conduct the elections would be provided by the Ministry of Finance.

She said, the Commission had started the process for Parliament to pass a new legislative instrument to enable the EC to hold the polls in November.

On the forthcoming Limited Voter Registration, the Commissioner said, the Commission had carried out public education to inform those who had just attained 18 and those who were yet to register, to take advantage of the exercise.

She said the EC was targeting to capture about 1.2 million people within the limited period.

The Commissioner cautioned the public against double registration, stating that the system was capable of detecting double registration.

She urged those who had lost their Voter Identity (ID) cards to make formal complaints at the nearest EC office for them to be issued with new ones.

She explained that those who were applying for replacement of their voter ID cards would have to pay a GHC5.00 for the cost of the materials.

Mrs Osei said Ghana currently had 25 registered political parties but the EC was considering barring political parties without offices across the country from partaking in the November polls.

The 1992 Constitution states that all political parties must have at least offices in two-thirds of the districts in the country.