EC grooming 220,000 polling agents for elections

The Electoral Commission (EC) has started training 220,000 polling agents for political parties and independent candidates contesting the December election.

The “Safeguarding the integrity of the ballot” project is being sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Speaking at a training session for party agents in the Nkawkaw constituency at Kwahu Nsaba on Sunday the Deputy Eastern Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Eric Mensah-Bonsu, said the Presiding Officer of a polling station has the power to mount additional booths to speed up voting.

He said such decisions are allowed when the queues are long and the voting process is slow. “Additional booths can be mounted especially when the Electoral Commission now has easy mounting paper-box booths.”

Mr Mensah-Bonsu appealed to polling agents to ask questions concerning issues they do not understand at the polling station.

He said under the electoral laws, if any party agent was not satisfied with the counting process, the agent could request for recounting at the polling station only once and if still not satisfied, a second recount could be done at the coalition centre and if still not satisfied, the party could petition the high court if the agent is for a parliamentary candidate, or the Supreme Court if the agent is for a presidential candidate.

GNA