Election 2020: Choosing literates as polling agents will reduce confusion – EC

The Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, has urged political parties to select persons who are literates to serve as their polling station agents.

According to him, the tension that characterizes elections, especially amongst political party agents is sometimes worsened because the parties often employ illiterates who can't read or understand the electoral processes.

Dr. Serebour Quaicoe was speaking to Citi News in the Central Region shortly after touring a number of voting centres in Cape Coast on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

“As of the time I was around…no one had used the facial recognition or manual verification option. Meaning that everyone was being verified biometrically. That is the efficacy of the BVDs. The polling agents of both the NPP and NDC were interacting freely. It is good everything is being appreciated in the system. So everyone should commit to this election so that at the end of the day, the voice of Ghanaians will be the deciding factor”, he said.

The special voting exercise took place in all the 275 centres nationwide on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

A total of 109,577 were expected to vote for their preferred presidential and parliamentary candidates across the country.

The early voters were personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces, National Intelligence Bureau, National Security, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana National Fire Service, and Information Services Department.

The rest are personnel of the National Ambulance Service, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Prisons Service, Ghana Journalists Association, Ghana Police Service and National Media Commission.

Already, the EC says it is 95 percent prepared to deliver successful, credible, fair, and orderly elections on December 7, 2020.

The Commission has also assured of peaceful and transparent general elections.

Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa said her outfit is “working on building more transparency and accountability in the processes leading to the elections. We are of the firm conviction that how we conduct ourselves before, during, and after the election will have a direct impact on how peaceful the election will be.”

---citinewsroom