The Deputy Chairperson in charge of Operations at the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Alhaji Amadu Sulley, has disclosed that the media would take part in the special voting, prior to the main voting.

According to him, the previous law governing elections in the country did not allow media practitioners to cast their votes as part of the special voting, which takes place a week before the general voting.

According to him, the EC was determined to make sure that the election was successful, and for that matter, had added the media to the special voting, looking at its (media) work.

This will enable the media to play its role as the watchdog, as far as reporting on the process is concerned.

“The media was removed from the law in the previous elections, but in this election, they are back. They can now follow the procedure to fill a form to vote during the special voting,” he disclosed.

Alhaji Amadu Sulley revealed the intention of the EC to allow the media to take part in the special voting, when he was giving a speech at the launch of 2016 peaceful election stamps by the Ghana Post Company Limited in Accra yesterday.

He further stated that the visually impaired had not been left out in this year’s general elections, as mechanisms had been put in place to ensure they also voted.

Alhaji Amadu said the visually challenged would be trained by people who had been trained on how the visually impaired could vote.

This, he explained, was part of the commission’s move to ensure all were included in the electoral process, especially, the upcoming elections.

“The commission has put certain mechanisms in place to ensure peaceful elections. We lean on the law as an electoral body. We don’t use our discretion.

“Transparency and involvement are what we (EC) want to achieve, and have done that by involving critical stakeholders in the process,” he noted.

As at now, there are 25 political parties on the records of the EC, and another 11 are knocking on the doors of the commission to give them the permit to operate, the Deputy Chair disclosed.

This, in effect, meant that should the commission grant all these 11 parties permission, the country would go to the polls this year with 36 political parties.

Source:Ghanaian chronicle