The Chair of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, has offered Ghanaians assurance that her outfit is ready to carry out a successful presidential and parliamentary election on 7 December 2020.
Speaking at a virtual forum on the EC’s preparedness towards the general polls, Mensa said the electoral management body is 97% ready for the democratic exercise.
“The Electoral Commission is ready for the 7 December elections. We’ve deployed our staff to most of the districts with logistics,” Mensa disclosed at the forum under the theme: “Towards a Free, Fair and Peaceful Election: Who is doing What?”
She said: “We’re doing everything within our power to ensure transparency and accountability ahead of the elections. That is why right from the inception we’ve let our doors opened and we’re doing all we can for a smooth exercise.”
The EC chair also assured stakeholders, especially political parties that the election will be peaceful, adding they are in constant discussion with the security agencies to ensure a fruitful process.
“As a Commission, we’re committed to undertake a credible, orderly, fair and transparent elections come December,” she noted.
Representatives of political parties, including Joyce Bawa Mogtari of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said they “anticipate that the outcome of the 7 December polls is free and fair and not fraught with challenges.”
Declaration of results 24 hours after polls
Meanwhile, the EC has announced it will declare the results of the elections 24 hours after polls are closed.
The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced it has put in place measures to declare the results of the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections 24 hours at the close of polls.
The EC said it wants the eighth election under the Fourth Republic to be extraordinary, compared to previous ones.
“All things being equal, by the next day before we go to bed, we would have declared the results,” the Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebour Quarcoo, stated at a national dialogue on peaceful election in Accra.
Dr. Quarcoo was quite optimistic of achieving such feat because “almost all materials for this year’s elections have been dispatched to the regions more than two weeks to the polls.”
He added: “Our plan is that we want to declare results on the 8 December, that’s why I said that this year’s election is going to be the best because we are putting in place all the planning that it needs and we are getting all the support that we need.
“All the logistics have been put in place, all the regions and districts have been asked to submit what they will need to make our dream of declaring the results the next day a reality.”
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online.
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#asaaseradio #TVOL