Cut working hours by half on election day – STRANEK-Africa

There is more room for improvement so far as voters coming out to cast their ballot is concerned

Pressure group STRANEK-Africa has called on the government to consider declaring a half working day for workers on 7 December 2020 to enable the majority of the citizens to vote on the day of the general elections.

According to STRANEK-Africa, “in 2016, with 15,712,505 registered voters, 10,713,650 voters cast their ballot”.

“This means that since 167,349 votes were recorded as blank or invalid votes, 4,831,506 registered voters did not vote on December 7, 2016.

“The implication is: there is more room for improvement so far as voters coming out to cast their ballot is concerned”, the group observed.

STRANEK-Africa, in a statement, said it believes that a declaration by the government of Ghana, backed by an instrument, asking workers (except essential workers) to work half of their maximum hours on election day, will go a long way to compel employers to allow their workers to close early so they could exercise their franchise.

“Most Ghanaians enjoy travelling to their home towns to cast their vote.

“Thus, if a declaration by the government of Ghana, backed by an instrument, is passed, it will give workers the chance to travel to their hometowns to cast their vote on the day of general elections and even those who will move from one constituency to another constituency, electoral area to another electoral area, since their place of work may not be where they vote,” the statement said.

According to STRANEK-Africa, a time should come where Ghana should boast of 99.9% voter turnout on the day of elections.