Suspected foreigner can vote

The Electoral Commission (EC) has said no one at a polling station has the legal authority to stop any registered voter from exercising his or her franchise because that person is suspected to be a foreigner.

Mr Appiah Agyeman, District electoral officer, who said this, explained that such a suspect can vote and any person who has an objection may lodge a formal complaint with the EC. Mr Agyeman was speaking at a day's training workshop for 120 election observers of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) at Suhum.

Participants from Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar and Akuapim South districts attended the workshop, sponsored by the European Union through the Fredriech Naumann Foundation. He said on receiving the complaint, the EC would forward it to the Police for investigations and the courts for adjudication. Mr Agyeman advised that complaints made must be credible and those who made them must be prepared to go to court when summoned to do so.

He said unlike the previous elections, party agents are this time allowed to sit close to election officials at the polling stations, adding, "party agents are now active members of the electoral process"

The Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of CODEO, Mr. Edmund Quaynor, said 650 election observers would be trained and deployed to eight districts in the region.