The Electoral Commission (EC) has confirmed that it will use indelible ink in this year’s elections.
The electoral management body had earlier stated its decision to abandon the use indelible ink because it had introduced the biometric technology which makes it difficult for a person who has been verified and cast their vote to come a second time.
But at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday March 7, 2024, the EC said it has rescinded its decision not to use indelible ink.
The Director of Elections & I.T of the opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) Dr. Edward Omane Boamah disclosed the EC’s decision in an interview with Kasapa News.
”…Officially, she (EC Chairperson) placed before all the political parties present that in 2024 elections, indelible ink will be used. She further stated that ahead of the elections the registration that we are going to have, the guarantor system will stay. Because that has been the concern that we have been raising and we have always used their own evidence that the 2023 limited registration over 60% of the registrants registered through the guarantor system and not by using a passport or Ghana Card. Therefore if less than a period of one year the EC was going to jetisson the guarantor system through a new CI, it would have meant that the EC was going to disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians. The EC Chair was very clear without ambiguity that the guarantor system will remain in the limited registration that we are going to have.”
The IPAC meeting also resolved that there will be no continuous registration of voters. Dates for transfer and proxy maintained on the calender.
Limited registration will be done in district offices and agreed difficult to reach areas in Electoral areas (movement plan) to be shared 21 days to 7th May, 2024.
Additionally, no new polling station will be created, but new polling centres will be created by splitting polling stations with voters above 749 after limited registration.
Source: Kasapafmonline.com