Regular voter education will address election suspicion

Constant education, training of stakeholders and continuous improvements on election processes are vital to eliminating suspicion surrounding the conduct of elections in Ghana.

This was the consensus arising out of a meeting organised in Ho by the Electoral Commission (EC) for stakeholders to review the conduct of 2012 elections in the Volta Region.

The meeting was a continuation of the joint collaboration of the British Department for International Development (DFID) and KAB Governance Consult (KGC) and EC to review the 2012 elections.

The meeting agreed that biometric registration of voters helped in checking impersonation and double registration in the region.

Participants, mainly leaders of political parties, Presiding and Returning Officers and officials of the National Commission on Civic Education however stressed the need to address the problems associated with voter verification.

Participants also called on the EC to impress upon government to give attention to the National Identification Project to ensure that people did not cross over from neighbouring countries to vote in border communities.

Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, said there was the need for the citizenry to brainstorm to protect the credibility of elections in Ghana.

He said the problems with elections in the country must be shared collectively as a nation and not blamed on one person or institution.

Dr Afari Gyan said “the citizenry have a collective responsibility to make our elections what we want it to be.”

He said the regional review meetings were therefore meant to find out “what we have done so well that must be retained, what have not been done well and need to be changed and what has been done so badly so that we find entire new ways for the future.”