PNC fumes, NPP hails EC over Strong Room expansion

Plans by the Electoral Commission of Ghana to expand its strong room to make it more accessible come the 2016 elections have been met with taut opposition from the camp of the People’s National Convention (PNC).

The PNC has held the view that the strong room must be disbanded in order to strengthen the collation centres for results certification during general elections.

The EC announced that it is rolling out series of reforms in the 2016 elections to avert controversies that characterised the 2012 elections. According to the body mandated to supervise elections in Ghana, various political parties will have access to the strong room after the reforms.

The EC Director of Finance, Joseph Kwaku Asamoah said the Commission also intends to have two Biometric Verification Device (BVD) at every polling station to address challenges of breakdown during elections.

However, the General Secretary of the PNC Bennard Mornah told Accra-based Citi FM the EC is engaging in a “pick and choose” tactics since the political parties have come up with comprehensive reforms ahead of the next elections.

“We should have appropriate collation centres. We think they have not yet listened to the political parties… and they have to sit with the political parties,” he said.

But his counterpart with the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyepong, believes the EC’s reforms are long overdue.

“We are happy and that is the main sticking point of elections. So far we are quite happy with some of the reforms,” he mentioned.