Mr. Amadu Sulley, Deputy Chairman of Electoral Commission (EC) said the Commission would extend the period of votes transfer from 21 to 41 days.

“EC would amend its laws in order to extend the period to enable people to have ample time to transfer their votes. This will not mean that anybody will be allowed to transfer votes, there will be conditions attached,” he added.

Mr. Amadu said this when representatives of 10 political parties from the Upper East and Northern Regions embarked on a study tour of the EC’s facilities, as part of measures to enhance credibility of Election 2012.

The Ashanti, Volta, Brong Ahafo, Central, Western, Upper West had so far taken turns to tour the EC.

The tour dubbed “The Inbuilt Integrity of Ghana’s Electoral Process” was organized by the EC in collaboration with DFID of UK and KAB Governance Consult.

The political parties were the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), United Front Party (UFP), Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Independent People’s Party (IPP) and the New Vision Party (NVP).

Mr. Amadu, who is the Commissioner responsible for the two regions, said EC would provide about 34,000 electoral materials, as a measure to prevent shortage of materials and called on political party representatives to be abreast of the laws in order to put the Commission on its toes.

Mr. Daniel Amanyo, Assistant Director of Elections, introduced representatives to the operations room, popularly known as the ‘strong room’.

He said unlike other African countries, the EC had consistently counted ballot papers in the open, stressing that such efforts should be appreciated by executives of political parties.

Mr. Alex Omari, Electoral Officer, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of the EC, led party executives on an inspection tour at the IT department.

Representatives of the parties commended the EC for the opportunity and called for unity as the country prepares for Election 2012.**