Elections are won at polling stations – EC tells political parties

The Electoral Commission (EC), the body mandated to conduct public elections in Ghana has denied ever rigging an election in favor or for a particular political party since the commission came into existence in 1992.

‘We are men of integrity and fairness as our core values stipulate. I can tell you, we have never rigged election or aided rigging of election in favor or for a particular political party,” the Western Regional Director of the Commission, Mr. Stephen Opoku-Mensah told this reporter in reaction to a question posed to him at a workshop organized by the EC to build the capacity of media personnel in Takoradi.

The workshop also touched on the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 91, which would govern the November 7 general election.

According to Mr. Opoku-Mensah, elections had always been won at the polling stations and that there is no way a member of the EC could aid in rigging elections for a particular political party. He was, however, quick to add that any member of the commission who aids in the rigging of an election does not qualify to hold his or her position.

Mr. Stephen Opoku later told this reporter in a telephone interview that: “So far as the term rigging exist, it means there is rigging, but we (EC) do not rig elections.”

The Director of Human Resource at the EC, Mr. Samuel T. Boadu, who took the Journalists through the dictates of the CI 91 told them that it was not good for the country to go into the 2016 election with what he described as questionable voter register.

“We want to have a clean and credible voter register but we can’t sit on the fence as citizens and expect the register to clean itself. This is the reason why we must all get involved and help the EC to undertake and have a credible voter register for our election.”

Answering a question as to whether the country had ever had a credible voter register during electioneering periods, the EC HR Director answered in the affirmative and mentioned the years the country had had an election as evidence.

“It is our hope that this year too, we will have a credible voter register if we all contribute to the process.”
He admitted that in order to have a credible and successful election, the register for the conduct of the election must be credible.

This, he continued, is what the EC had sought to do with the limited registration and exhibition exercise to clean the voters’ register.

“So it is important for every Ghanaian to take part in the exercise to help clean the voter register in order to have a credible election,” he added.

Turning to Journalists, Mr. Samuel Boadu reminded them of their critical role in providing information to the public. This information, he noted, must be fair and balanced.

Mr. Boadu, however, reminded the media that their role during the election would be limited to just observation and monitoring.