Regional News of Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Tema Regional Police Command activates Election Security Taskforce

Tema Regional Election Security Task Force Tema Regional Election Security Task Force

The Tema Regional Police Command has activated and inaugurated the Regional Election Security Task Force ahead of the December elections to ensure peace and calm during the democratic process.

The Election Security Taskforce would ensure that peace, law and order prevail in the 2019 Unit Committee and District Assembly elections, the Referendum on the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives as well as the 2020 General Elections.

In an address during the inauguration on Tuesday at the Tema Regional Police Headquarters, the Tema Regional Police Commander, DCOP Edward Johnson Akrofi-Oyirifi, said, “We were reactivating the Regional Election Security Taskforce and to assure the public that all measures were put in place for the smooth running of the elections, so that success would be ours and mother Ghana would be the victor.”

DCOP Akrofi-Oyirifi informed that in the upcoming elections, “Our mandate as security personnel is to ensure that there is law and order so that peace is maintained before, during and after the elections, and that is why were are reactivating the Election Taskforce.”

The Regional Commander said, as had been the practice, the Taskforce would form various committees that would see to the smooth running of the elections.

He therefore asked members of the committees “to bring out innovative ideas so that we would be able to build on the success we’ve chocked during elections in this country.”

“The security services were poised at providing all the necessary support to the Electoral Commission, and we are assuring them that we would give our maximum cooperation, collaboration and support to make the exercise a success,” DCOP Akrofi-Oyirifi informed.

The Tema Metropolitan Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Nana Oduro Numapau, explained that even though there would be three elections on the 17th of December, the Commission would not experience any challenges because the processes would be the same.

Mr. Numapau urged all registered voters to take part in the exercise by saying that, “Apart from those who voted in the referendum for the new regions, some of us have never voted in a referendum anywhere, so it’s an opportunity for us to experience the process and then also make our voice heard when it comes to the democracy we are participating.”

The EC officer assured that the elections were going to be peaceful because, “There would be security everywhere; where we think there is even a flashpoint, the security would map out strategies to deal with any situation.”