POLITICAL PARTIES TO VISIT E.C ‘STRONG ROOM’

Listen to Dr. Afari Djan addressing Party Executives

Executives of the various political parties in the country would soon be taken on a tour of the Electoral commission of Ghana head offices to familiarize themselves with the operations of the E.C especially in the operations room (better known as the strong room) and the information technology department of the commission.

Dr. Kwodwo Afari-Djan, chairman of the commission disclosed this at a capacity building workshop organized by the Commission in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) and KAB Governance Consult (KGC) for political parties in the Volta Region at Ho.

According to the E.C boss, the tour is intended to correct wrong impressions about activities that goes on in the ‘strong room’ and deepen the understanding and strength of the country’s electoral system.

“There are several rumours and we need to make people understand that we do not do surgical operations in our operations room and that no one can manipulate figures in the IT room,” Dr. Afari-Djan said. 

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Progressive People’s Party (PPP) were the only parties present at the workshop which was on the theme “The Inbuilt integrity of Ghana’s Electoral Process.”

Participants treated topics like the rights and obligations of Political Parties and EC-Political Party Relations, the In-built Integrity of Ghana’s Electoral System and Importance of Polling Agents as part of the EC’s outreach programme on voter education.

Dr. Afari Gyan said everyone needed some form of voter education and advised political parties to educate the electorate on voting procedures and the dos and don’ts of elections.

He therefore expressed the hope that, the Commissions engagement with party executives would help deepen their understanding of the electoral system create mutual appreciation of the basis of the relationship between the EC and the political parties.