The Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC) has invited the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to resume attendance at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings.
Following the 2020 general elections, the NDC had boycotted all IPAC sessions. The EC Chairperson extended this invitation during a stakeholders’ meeting on inter-party dialogue organized by the National Peace Council (NPC) at Peduase in the Eastern Region on Thursday.
“I would like to use this opportunity to invite the leadership of the National Democratic Congress to our IPAC meetings. We do realize that since 2021, the NDC has not been present at our IPAC meetings. We miss them, we miss their fire. I extend an olive branch, and in the interest of the peace of our country. We invite them to IPAC,” she stated.
Simultaneously, the EC Chairperson justified the decision to shift the closing time of voting from 5:00 pm to 3:00 pm during the upcoming 2024 general elections. Emphasizing the need for transparent and orderly collation of votes, she pointed out that this adjustment was informed by lessons learned from the 2020 elections, where around 70 percent of voting centers witnessed minimal activity by 1:00 pm.
Mrs. Mensa stressed that the goal of this adjustment is to diminish the historically long queues during elections, streamlining the voting process for citizens.
She outlined plans to ensure that all polling stations have a threshold of 500 voters or below, coupled with an increase in the number of polling stations nationwide.
Drawing from the 2020 experience and feedback from observer groups, Mrs. Mensa proposed closing the polls at 3:00 pm, citing that by that time, 70 percent of polling stations were empty as most voters had already cast their votes.
This adjustment aims to facilitate the counting and collation of votes in broad daylight, promoting transparency and orderliness in the electoral process.
“In 2020, 70 percent of our polling centers had a voter threshold of 500 and below. This time we intend to ensure that all our polling station centers have a threshold of 500 voters and below. In the same vein, we will increase the number of our polling stations nationwide. We believe that this will go a long way to reduce the long queues that characterize our elections and allow for a smooth, seamless, hassle-free voting process. In 2020, it took voters not more than five minutes to cast their votes due to the introduction of this policy.”
“Based on our 2020 experience and also feedback from several observer groups, we propose to close the polls at 3:00 pm. Our experience in 2020 reveals that by 1:00 pm, 70 percent of our polling stations were empty of voters as most voters had cast their votes. This made it possible because the threshold of most polling centers was reduced to 500 voters per voting center. This was coupled with the robust verification devices that were deployed to the polling stations. We are convinced that by closing the polls at 3:00 pm, we will be able to count and collate in broad daylight, and this will promote the needed transparency and orderliness that we so desire,” Mrs. Mensa said.
