The Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has observed that there is a high tendency for the Electoral Commission of Ghana to plug Ghana into chaos in the 2024 general elections if care is not taken.
He said the performance of the Electoral Commission in the District Level Elections on Tuesday, 19th December, 2023 is clear indication that the EC is not well prepared ahead of the 2024 general elections.
According to the Member of Parliament for Suame constituency in the Ashanti Region, it is about time the Electoral Commission of Ghana under the leadership of Jean Mensah make amendments in their decision making on the electoral processes and ensure that materials needed for elections are always available before they announce the date for an election.
“If we are assured that we start early and then create minimum polling stations such that by 2,o’clock 90 to 95% have voted. Why not? you should not create a situation where instead of cleaning up the system, you rather end up creating chios” Osei Kyei Mensah warned.
“I went to my station today, I flew from Accra to Kumasi, got to where I supposed to voting and unfortunately, I think is about 9am or so that they started which was not good enough. If you want to end at 3pm, instaed of starting at 7am you are begining at 8am, you will create chaos” He stated.
The majority leader’s comment comes after the Electoral Commission postponed District Level Elections in some Electoral Areas in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions to Thursday, 21st December, 2023 due to technical challenges.
The Suame constituency lawmaker also urged the Electoral Commission to reconsider their decision to stop the usage of indelible ink for polls in the country.
EC announced that there is no need for indelible ink for the district-level election and subsequent polls.
According to the Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensah, avoinding indelible ink in elections has become neccesary due to effectiveness of the biometric system.
“The issue of indelible ink, the question is when we were not doing biometric we were basically using your face, your card. We look at your face and we say this picture looks like you. “The biometric technology makes it difficult for a person who has been verified and cast their vote to come a second time. So, there is no need for indelible ink. Once you have been verified, it goes into the system and you cannot come back a second time,” she said.
“Another thing that I think the Electoral Commission they have to have a second look at is their discontinues of the usage of the indelible ink, I think they should reconsider it because today, my small constituency, I think two electoral areas, the materials for voting did not arrive so is likely they may do it tommorrow or the day after. If it happens that way, I don’t know how centralized their data base is, their data base is not centralized?
“And a person has voted at Suame and maybe by what any other means succeeded in register in another place and the name has not poped up, if you have a strong indelible ink it will give the person out” The Majority leader stated.
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
