Provide more electoral materials

Bolgatanga, Sept. 1, GNA - Participants at a day's forum organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Bolgatanga, on Friday stressed the need for the Electoral Commission (EC) to ensure that adequate voting materials were provided to all the voting centres in the forthcoming general election They made the call at the forum on "Issues on Voters Education, Peaceful and Non-Violence Election in 2008" Participants, who were drawn from the various political parties, party activists, aspiring parliamentarians, the youth, and religious leaders in the Bolgatanga, explained that it would be very undemocratic for people to be denied the exercising of their franchise, simple because of inadequate electoral materials.
They lamented the shortage of the materials characterized by the recent registration exercise in the country, describing the situation as unfortunate. "The EC must make sure adequate materials are provided at this time to all polling stations, to enable people to exercise their franchise without any problem," they stressed. Participants also stated the need for government as a major stakeholder, to provide enough funds to train and resource the EC to discharge its duty effectively and efficiently. They appealed to government to create a level playing field for all the political parties and to stop the abuse of incumbency to ensure peaceful election. Participants expressed concern about the mode in which people with low levels in education were recruited and not adequately trained, to undertake the registration exercise.
"Some people who are not up to date with information on electoral process are put there based on family relationship, which undermines the process," Participants indicated. They advocated that when the EC in recruiting people to undertake the exercise, they should recruit people who would not be influenced by the sentiments of any political party to misconduct themselves to undermine the exercise.