About 9 million women will vote on December 7

General news for Thursday, November 26, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-11-26

Around nine million women voters are expected to cast their votes during the presidential and parliamentary elections on December 7, according to statistical data from the Electoral Commission (EC).

Mr. Michael Boadu, EC Training Director, stated that of the population of voters, 17,029,981 who are eligible to vote on December 7, the number of female voters constitutes 8,811,115, representing 51.7 percent, compared to the male figure of 8,218,866, which represents 48.3 percent.

There are 44,548 people with disabilities on the voting list, representing 0.26% of the total voting population: lepers – 8.0%, hearing impairment – 11.7%, visual impairment – 52.6% and disabled / wheelchairs – 30.8%.

Mr. Boadu, who spoke at the fifth of the series’ training sessions organized by the Ghana News Agency to sharpen the information skills of reporters and staff, explained that 914 people were vying for 275 parliamentary seats.

He said that despite female dominance in the voter registry, only 126 parliamentary candidates were competing against 788 men.

He explained that 210,038, representing 1.23 percent of the total registered voters, transferred their votes from one polling station to another; 109,436, representing 0.67 percent, will participate in the Special Voters, made up of security personnel, EC officials and accredited media personnel.

He said that currently the EC has stepped up voter education through radio and television announcements, dialogue sessions, engagements and interactions with stakeholders and has completed training of electoral staff.

The GNA training focused on voting preparation, an explanation of the nation’s legal framework, general election figures, 2020 flashpoint list, procedures for processing a voter, classification and counting procedure for upcoming elections.

Mr. Albert Kofi Owusu, General Manager of GNA in a speech explained that the Board of Directors and the Administration of the agency considered that the training was fundamental in the preparation for an effective coverage of the elections.

He said that “we are developing our capacity to ensure credible and transparent coverage of the 2020 elections. We expect our staff across the country to produce articles, comments, news, breaking news, news, we must be aware of the coverage for feed the nation.

“We are transforming and incorporating dynamic skills into daily newsroom work to improve the quality of our stories while building editorial responsibility to reflect the checklist of what journalists and coordinators should produce on the day of the elections”.

He advised journalists to protect themselves from prejudice, hate speech, stereotypes and misconceptions: “We must be careful in using content and language, while adhering to ethical guidelines on election reporting, as established by the Ghana Journalists Association and the National Media Commission. “

He charged journalists to adhere to the principles of journalism, which relied heavily on balance, factual or accurate reporting, devoid of opinions and personal insults.

“We have a constitutional obligation as journalists to protect the integrity of Ghana, ensure national cohesion at all times and create a voice for the voiceless. We must work at all times for the construction of peace ”.