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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has constituted a committee to put together a comprehensive document on electoral reform proposals on the back of a review of the 2020 general elections.
This was after the NDC kicked against the recent proposals adopted at a two-day post-election 2020 review workshop held for IPAC members which it was absent.
This has been confirmed by Elvis Afriyie Ankrah who is the Director of Elections of the umbrella party at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra on Thursday, May 20, 2021.
“The party has constituted a committee to come up with a compressive document on electoral reform proposals and we shall share that with you in the coming days,” he told journalists at the presser.
In the interim, the NDC has released six proposals it wants the Electoral Commission to look at and adopt before the next general election in 2024.
The NDC wants the participation of IPAC and its advisory role in the electoral process to be given legal backing, without encroaching on the constitutional independence of the Electoral Commission.
In addition, it wants the EC to adopt an equitable voting formula for political parties in IPAC deliberations based on their representation in Parliament.
Among many other things announced by Elvis Afriyie Ankrah at the press conference on Thursday, he also noted that the main opposition party proposes that in the next election, the Ghana Police Service should be in charge of security.
“That, the Electoral Commission reverts to the time-tested election security arrangement where the deployment of security for election purposes is reserved to the Ghana Police service acting within a framework provided by the Electoral Commission.
“This security arrangement should have minimum involvement of the military and no interference whatsoever by so-called National Security operatives, as recommended by the Emil Short Commission,” Mr. Ankrah told journalists.
According to the NDC, it intends to engage various stakeholders such as the media, civil society organizations, religious leaders, traditional leaders, development partners, the diplomatic community, and the general public on all the preliminary proposals.
Below is the six proposals:
NDC’S PROPOSED REFORMS
Ladies and Gentlemen, after a painstaking review of the 2020 elections, the following are the preliminary proposals for electoral reforms which the NDC intends to engage various stakeholders such as the media, civil society organizations, religions leaders, traditional leaders, development partners, the diplomatic community, and the general public. These preliminary proposals are as follows:
1. That, the participation of IPAC and its advisory role in the electoral process should be given legal backing, without encroaching on the constitutional independence of the Electoral Commission.
2. That, the EC adopts an equitable voting formula for political parties in IPAC deliberations based on their representation in Parliament.
3. That, the Electoral Commission complies with the use of the legally-prescribed Statement of Poll/Pink Sheet (Form 8A & 8B) provided for in our Election Regulations to prevent the omission of BVD entries so as to preserve the ballot accounting process and makes it possible to check multiple voting, ballot stuffing, impersonation and other forms of rigging.
4. That, the high rate of rejected ballots recorded in the 2020 general elections be addressed through the use of the appropriate ink pads and that same should be stipulated in our election regulations.
5. That, the EC employs and trains highly competent staff to accurately fill election result forms and collate results so as to forestall the reoccurrence of the widespread cases of arithmetic errors recorded in the 2020 general elections,
6. That, the Electoral Commission reverts to the time-tested election security arrangement where the deployment of security for election purposes is reserved to the Ghana Police service acting within a framework provided by the Electoral Commission. This security arrangement should have minimum involvement of the military and no interference whatsoever by so-called National Security operatives, as recommended by the Emil Short Commission.
The party has constituted a committee to come up with a compressive document on electoral reform proposals and we shall share that with you in the coming days.
