Ghana Post Elections

The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced that it will embark on the new voters' registration exercise in five clusters. The Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe told Graphic Online that the exact date for the registration exercise would be announced later but it is expected to start in the last week of June 2020. He said the commission has planned to use 38 days for the entire exercise and that it was targetting between 16million and 16.5million people to register. About 8500 BVRs are expected to be used for the exercise.   "This time around we are using five registration centres per a cluster. So assuming you have 15 polling stations, you divide the 15 by five, so that you have 10 clusters. And each cluster will form one registration team and each team will be made up of two registration officers, two data entry clerks, one registration officer special duties, he will be in charge of commuting between the team and the district office as w...

The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party, John Boadu has justified the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to suspend the voters’ registration exercise. The  EC on Wednesday announced that it had  suspended the planned exercise   which was  initially scheduled for April 18, 2020, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Speaking to journalists after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting the Commission’s Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, said the Commission is collaborating with health experts to decide on a more favourable date depending on the prevalence rate of the virus. John Boadu, on  Eyewitness News , indicated that it was necessary to ensure the safety of everyone hence the reason to suspend the registration exercise. “It’s about the condition all of us find ourselves in with this pandemic. All of us are faced with this challenge that we need to work as a people to contain or reduce the spr...

About 27 political vigilante groups across the country have been disbanded, Mr George Amoh, Acting Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council has disclosed.  He said the law on vigilantism had clearly stated that a political party shall not directly or indirectly form, organise, operate or engage in activities of vigilantism and added that such acts were culpable and offenders were liable to conviction to a fine of not less than 1,000 penalty units and not more than 25,000 penalty units. Mr Amoh disclosed this during a stakeholder capacity building workshop on vigilantism related offenses and regulation ACT 2019 (ACT999). The event, which was organised by the Northern Sector Awareness Creation (NORSAAC), in Tamale, with funding support from STAR Ghana Foundation, brought together political parties and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to discuss the way forward towards a peaceful election. He indicated that “whoever breaks the law commits an offense and is liable to...

 The Electoral Commission (EC) has done no wrong in the matter relating to the selection of a vendor for the New Biometric Voter Management System, a source with knowledge about the matters has revealed. Some groups opposed to the compilation of the voters register claim that the EC bungled its procurement process, leaving a trail of evidence suggesting tender-rigging. This has opened the process to litigation and delay. However, the source that asked not to be named pointed to the contrary and affirmed that the EC duly followed all the procurement procedures as far as the procurement of the New Biometric Voter Management system is concerned. Explaining, the source indicated that three notifications of award of contracts for the refurbishment and upgrades of the data centre. Refurbishment of Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) and the Biometric Voters Register (BVRs) were issued to Super Tech Limited (STL) in June 2018. “The notification of award of contract was to ena...

The Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Former President John Dramani Mahama, says his party’s political campaign towards the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections will be based on the track record and achievements of the NDC. The Former President emphasized that “This year’s campaign would be issue-based, it will be campaign of records, we shall compare our records and we shall compare the records of our friends and decide.” Mr. Mahama said this in a speech delivered on his behalf by Mr. Peter Boamah Otokonor, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC at the annual Danjuar festival of the Bimobas of Garu and Tempane Districts of the Upper East Region. The festival, which was characterized by a beautiful display of the culture of the Bimoba people, was on the theme: “Investing in Bimoba Land: The Role of Government, Chiefs, and Stakeholders.” Mr. Mahama said while they would be comparing and campaigning on issues, they would also be listening to the pe...

A leading member of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) has challenged Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to a debate on the country’s economy. Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo said the “face to face” interaction would afford Ghanaians the chance to assess figures being churned out by the government on the country’s economy. Speaking at a forum organised by the Coalition for Restoration -- under the theme ‘Assessing the three-year reign of President Akufo-Addo’-- at Labone in Accra, Mr. Adongo said he would resign from politics forever if the vociferous Veep is able to defend the government’s picture of the economy. He said the challenge was to ensure Dr. Bawumia does not “hide on a separate platform to produce his own data” after the Vice President himself asked the NDC to challenge him with counter figures. “I want to meet him face to face and ask him to defend these numbers in the full glare of Ghanaians.  If they are able to find any magic to dispute the cooking they a...

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is displeased with the Minority in Parliament’s failure to officially inform the leadership of the House about its decision to abstain from the debate on the State of the Nation Address. Mr. Mensah-Bonsu said the Minority failed to show courtesy by abstaining from the debate. “The discourtesy in it [abstinence] is that whereas I approached them formally to inquire whether they will debate and they had assured that they will debate when they elected not to debate, they failed to even formally communicate to me and that is the tragedy.” He was however quick to add that the Minority’s abstinence will in no way affect the relationship between leaders of the Majority and Minority in Parliament. “I think one episode should not mar relationship and do not forget you are the leader and you should play the role of a mother. You should be fatherly and be accommodating of everybody so yes, I was a bit ruffled by that but I am not rattled and I am no...