EC to give 50 vehicles to political parties

Accra, Nov. 19, GNA-The Electoral Commission (EC) said on Tuesday it was allocating a total of 50 vehicles to all political parties fielding parliamentary candidates in more than 10 constituencies to facilitate their movement during this year's elections.

Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Commission said in Accra that independent candidates in this year's election would not be included to benefit from the vehicle allocation.

The Chairman told a forum organised by the EC for parliamentary candidates in Accra, that the vehicles would not be collected from the parties after the elections were over. The forum, which was facilitated by KAB Governance Consult, and financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), is to throw light on issues of conduct of the candidates, parties, electoral officers and party polling agents.

Dr Afari-Gyan announced that the Commission had so far deleted a total of 349,000 names, made up of people who had so far died, foreigners and minors. The minors numbered 76,000.

Dr Afari-Gyan said 11 million persons were registered to vote, adding that, a person who had lost the voter ID card could vote upon sufficient identification. "We have three sources of checking if you are really registered. If your name is not on the register, but it is found on the checklist, there is all probability that you were registered. The EC Chairman said political parties must educate their agents on their role at the polling station, and warned that refusal by a party agent to sign the election results would not prevent the EC from announcing the results.

"After the ballots papers have been counted and certified, the papers cannot be counted anywhere again. Agents' refusal to sign does not make the results invalid. Our officer will go about their work if the agents are there or not.

"If the agents prove disruptive, they should be physically removed. Agents do not administer the election. They can be arrested for committing electoral offences even at the polling stations," Dr Afari-Gyan said.

The Chairman added that, when there were enough grounds for disruption, "we can cancel the whole election and have another election on another day."