109,000 people will participate in the early voting, ‘the highest in history’ – EC

General news for Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Source: FM class

2020-12-01

Some 109,557 Ghanaians made up of security personnel, media professionals and Electoral Commission staff will vote today, December 1, 2020.

Early voting is organized for voters who fall into all three categories, as they would be busy on Election Day, December 7, 2020.

At a press conference on the eve of the special voting day, the President of the Electoral Commission, Ms. Jean Mensa, said: “As you may already know, the Electoral Commission reached out to the security agencies and the media. to inform you about the special voting facility. The letter asked them to send the Commission details of their members who wanted to participate in the special voting exercise. I am pleased to note that the list of special votes has been compiled.

“The list has been published on the Commission’s website. In addition, the Commission has made it possible for people on the Special Voting List to verify their data using the Code. We encourage all who requested to take the time to verify their data before Tuesday, December 1, 2020, ”he said.

Giving more details about the early voting, Ms. Mensa said: “This year, the Commission has provided the special voting list to the representatives of the institutions who requested to vote during the special vote. The final list of special voting contains one hundred nine thousand five hundred fifty-seven people (109,557 people) from the different security agencies, media house and the Electoral Commission ”.

She said: “It is instructive to note that this is the highest number the Commission has recorded for special voting in its history.”

He also denied claims that the names of some security personnel were deliberately removed from the special voting list, adding that even some names that came forward after the deadline were considered.

“It is also important to mention that the Commission received several names long after the deadline. While some were considered, others came too late after the database was frozen. Once the database is frozen, no changes / transfers can be made. Unable to process all the lists received after the data freeze.

“We beg the public to ignore the information circulated on social media by some ‘experts’ that the Commission has prevented security agencies from registering. This is not true. All officers who submitted their application on time and provided the correct identification card number were duly registered ”.

“Unfortunately,” he added, “we prefer to have a problem with our media partners who have been collaborating with us all this time. There were some discrepancies with the lists sent by the GJA. The electronic copy of the list was different from the hard copy that contained more applicants. Unfortunately, this was not made known to the Electoral Commission team ”.

“As such, only the names in the electronic copy were reflected on the special voting list. The Commission regrets this and wishes to assure the GJA and NMC and journalists in general of our support for their efforts. To mitigate this, the Commission has instructed its field officials to give preferential treatment to media personnel who hold the Electoral Commission’s accreditation cards ”.

Ms. Mensa noted that “everything is ready for Tuesday’s special vote,” adding: “To date, officers have been recruited and trained.”

Furthermore, he noted, “all the materials have been distributed in sufficient quantities and the BVDs are prepared and deployed. We expect a participation close to 100% and we trust that the result will be peaceful, credible, transparent and orderly, with God being our helper. As the good book says, a horse is prepared for battle, but victory comes from God. We will keep you informed about the result of the special vote throughout the week. “