Election Results Here to come |
Over 800 NDC settlers at Suame Magazine defect to NPPOctober / November 2016 - Over 800 settlers comprising metal scrap dealers, house helps and others who migrated from the three northern regions to Suame Magazine to seek greener pastures and members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have defected to the New Patriotic Party (NPP). - Read More -
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PPP's victory puts EC's credibility in question - Ayariga 28/10/2016 - The flag bearer of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has said the Electoral Commission’s credibility is in question following an Accra High court ruling nullifying the disqualification of the flag bearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, from contesting in the December presidential polls. - Read More -
Parliament did not approve the November 7 for the 2016 elections.
This year’s parliamentary and presidential elections, like the previous ones, would be held on December 7.
This year’s parliamentary and presidential elections, like the previous ones, would be held on December 7.
Ghanaians may choose from more than 30 presidential candidates - EC
Source: myjoyonline. com / August 19, 2016 - With some four months to go to the polls, voters are likely to make a choice of a president from more than 30 candidates on the presidential ballot paper when they go to the polling center to vote.
This is because the Electoral Commission (EC) is set to grant approval to 11 more political parties to add to the already 25 to contest the December 7th election.
Deputy Commissioner of the EC, Amadu Sule explained that there is no limit to the number of political parties they can license.
“Two of the parties were asking me just the other day, ‘Please you have given us the provisional certificate when are you we getting the final one?’ When we look in our legal framework…in the Constitution, there is nothing in the law saying this is the cut-off…so it is open ended,” he said.
He joked about the possibility of having to choose between a portrait or landscape design on the presidential ballot sheet.
But he said when the time comes that decision will be taken by the Commission.
Mr. Sule however, did not mention the names of the parties awaiting final certification and what will go into deciding their fate.
Head of Communications at the Commission, Eric Dzakpasu explained that the new parties are many and varied with a lot of acronyms.
Speaking to Francis Abban on The Pulse program Wednesday, he confirmed, “there is a tall list of parties there but we need to investigate them before issuing them with the final certificate.”
He said day in and day out other parties come and apply to be registered and they have to be given a provisional certificate while the Commission continues with investigations before they are finally issued with certificates.
“Independent candidates don’t have to ask for any licenses to operate, they only have to satisfy the condition for the nomination,” he said.
He observed that two parties may be having the same acronym but they may not be the same political party.
According to him, when a party applies to contest it is given provisional certificates within seven days.
“After that within 30 days, the EC should finish gazetting their names and issuing them with the final certificate," he said.
According to Mr. Dzapasu, the highest number of presidential candidate the Commission has had so far was in the 2012 elections when there were six political parties contesting with two independent candidates.
The number of contestants will depend on how the ballot will be designed he said.
This is because the Electoral Commission (EC) is set to grant approval to 11 more political parties to add to the already 25 to contest the December 7th election.
Deputy Commissioner of the EC, Amadu Sule explained that there is no limit to the number of political parties they can license.
“Two of the parties were asking me just the other day, ‘Please you have given us the provisional certificate when are you we getting the final one?’ When we look in our legal framework…in the Constitution, there is nothing in the law saying this is the cut-off…so it is open ended,” he said.
He joked about the possibility of having to choose between a portrait or landscape design on the presidential ballot sheet.
But he said when the time comes that decision will be taken by the Commission.
Mr. Sule however, did not mention the names of the parties awaiting final certification and what will go into deciding their fate.
Head of Communications at the Commission, Eric Dzakpasu explained that the new parties are many and varied with a lot of acronyms.
Speaking to Francis Abban on The Pulse program Wednesday, he confirmed, “there is a tall list of parties there but we need to investigate them before issuing them with the final certificate.”
He said day in and day out other parties come and apply to be registered and they have to be given a provisional certificate while the Commission continues with investigations before they are finally issued with certificates.
“Independent candidates don’t have to ask for any licenses to operate, they only have to satisfy the condition for the nomination,” he said.
He observed that two parties may be having the same acronym but they may not be the same political party.
According to him, when a party applies to contest it is given provisional certificates within seven days.
“After that within 30 days, the EC should finish gazetting their names and issuing them with the final certificate," he said.
According to Mr. Dzapasu, the highest number of presidential candidate the Commission has had so far was in the 2012 elections when there were six political parties contesting with two independent candidates.
The number of contestants will depend on how the ballot will be designed he said.
Only 6.6m voters verified
16/08/2016 - Despite the fact that exhibition of the voters’ register is very important in the electoral process, less than half of registered voters verified their names during the 21 days of voters’ exhibition exercise carried out by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Out of the 15.7 million (15, 744, 730) names on the voters’ register, 6.6 million (6,693,292) voters, representing 43%, verified their names in an exercise that started on July 18 and ended on August 7, 2016. - Read More -
Out of the 15.7 million (15, 744, 730) names on the voters’ register, 6.6 million (6,693,292) voters, representing 43%, verified their names in an exercise that started on July 18 and ended on August 7, 2016. - Read More -
Nov 7 to be election day: EC begins moves to amend provision
Source: Daily Graphic Ghana / 19.12.2015 - Moves to have the presidential and parliamentary elections held on November 7 are advanced with the Electoral Commission ( EC ) liaising with the Attorney-General’s Department to have the relevant constitutional provision amended to effect the change.
The Chairman of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, who stated this on the floor of Parliament last Thursday, also said since the constitutional provision which stipulated that the elections be held on December 7 was not an entrenched one, the necessary legislative documents would soon be presented before the House to effect the change.
She said the change in date would make provision for the holding of run-off in November as well.
The Chairman of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, who stated this on the floor of Parliament last Thursday, also said since the constitutional provision which stipulated that the elections be held on December 7 was not an entrenched one, the necessary legislative documents would soon be presented before the House to effect the change.
She said the change in date would make provision for the holding of run-off in November as well.
Source of elow pictures: Various
She said the change in date would make provision for the holding of run-offs in November as well.
She told the House that the EC was also proposing a law which would empower it to prosecute election offenders with the consent and authorisation of the Attorney-General’s Department.
Mrs Osei said the EC asked for GHC1.2 billion for the 2016 polls and was also proposing an increase in the number of polling stations to 30, 000.
The amount required for the polls, she said, did not include the compilation of a new voters register or the cleaning of the current one.
She said the commission intended to train 152,000 election officials for the polls, adding that the request that highly qualified people be used for the conduct of the elections could be met by the commission. Each official, she said, would be paid more than GHC400.
She added, however, that because it was not likely that a large number of highly qualified professionals such as university professors would be willing to assist in that endeavour, the EC could only use them at collation centres and not at polling stations.
She said the commission was proposing November 3, 2016 for special voting, when those directly involved in election day duties would cast their votes ahead of the day for general election, adding that the election day would be November 7, 2016.
Programme of activities
Mrs Osei said the commission was likely to hold a voter exhibition exercise in June and allow for transfer of votes in September.
She noted that the training of election officers would be held for six days instead of two to ensure that they were thoroughly schooled in election matters.
She assured Ghanaians of credible, free, fair and transparent elections and called on Ghanaians not to entertain any fears because the commission was putting in place checks and balances for a flawless electoral process.
The EC Chairman said plans were being made to reduce long queues at polling stations, restricting every polling station to at most 850 voters.
She also said the EC had begun instituting measures to surmount geographical challenges such as the crossing of rivers and undulating terrains by creating new polling stations in vicinities with such barriers to make polling stations more accessible.
In that instance, she said, people in areas such as ‘Overseas’ would not have to cross rivers and other water bodies and stay in long queues before they exercised their right to vote.
“That would also reduce problems of visibility in areas which hitherto had seen elections getting into evenings,” she added.
Declaration of polls
The EC Chairman said barring any unforeseen circumstance, results of the polls would be declared two days after the polls.
According to Mrs Osei, due to the vexed issues of verification in the last elections, the commission had decided to carry out both electronic and manual verification to ensure that the legal provision that all voters be verified was complied with.
She told the House that the EC was also proposing a law which would empower it to prosecute election offenders with the consent and authorisation of the Attorney-General’s Department.
Mrs Osei said the EC asked for GHC1.2 billion for the 2016 polls and was also proposing an increase in the number of polling stations to 30, 000.
The amount required for the polls, she said, did not include the compilation of a new voters register or the cleaning of the current one.
She said the commission intended to train 152,000 election officials for the polls, adding that the request that highly qualified people be used for the conduct of the elections could be met by the commission. Each official, she said, would be paid more than GHC400.
She added, however, that because it was not likely that a large number of highly qualified professionals such as university professors would be willing to assist in that endeavour, the EC could only use them at collation centres and not at polling stations.
She said the commission was proposing November 3, 2016 for special voting, when those directly involved in election day duties would cast their votes ahead of the day for general election, adding that the election day would be November 7, 2016.
Programme of activities
Mrs Osei said the commission was likely to hold a voter exhibition exercise in June and allow for transfer of votes in September.
She noted that the training of election officers would be held for six days instead of two to ensure that they were thoroughly schooled in election matters.
She assured Ghanaians of credible, free, fair and transparent elections and called on Ghanaians not to entertain any fears because the commission was putting in place checks and balances for a flawless electoral process.
The EC Chairman said plans were being made to reduce long queues at polling stations, restricting every polling station to at most 850 voters.
She also said the EC had begun instituting measures to surmount geographical challenges such as the crossing of rivers and undulating terrains by creating new polling stations in vicinities with such barriers to make polling stations more accessible.
In that instance, she said, people in areas such as ‘Overseas’ would not have to cross rivers and other water bodies and stay in long queues before they exercised their right to vote.
“That would also reduce problems of visibility in areas which hitherto had seen elections getting into evenings,” she added.
Declaration of polls
The EC Chairman said barring any unforeseen circumstance, results of the polls would be declared two days after the polls.
According to Mrs Osei, due to the vexed issues of verification in the last elections, the commission had decided to carry out both electronic and manual verification to ensure that the legal provision that all voters be verified was complied with.
2016 Elections to be held on November 7
The Electoral Commission has given approval for the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections to be held on November 7 as part of proposals for electoral reforms.
Consequently, the Commission is to prepare the necessary constitutional instrument (CI) for presentation to Parliament for the elections to be moved from the December 7 date these elections had been conducted in the past to November 7. |
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This is to make room for the Commission to be able to organise a run-off in case no candidate is able to secure the 50-plus-one vote required for a first round victory and also to make room for preparation for a handover on January 7.
Should Parliament approve the new date, then next year’s elections and subsequent ones would be held on November 7. A principal Public Relations Officer of the Commission, Sylvia Annor confirmed this in an interview with Accra-based radio station, Peace FM on Monday.
This was after the New Statesman newspaper on Monday published a programme of activities by the EC for the electoral Year 2016 that stated that the EC had planned for the elections to be held on November 7, 2016.
Ms Annor explained that a final decision on whether to move it or not would depend on Parliament.
Ghana’s first Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 1992 were held on separate days in November and December respectively.
Following a boycott of the December 1992 Parliamentary elections by the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, under allegations of malpractices in the presidential, there was a decision to hold both elections on the same day so as to be able to prevent a similar boycott in the future.
The move was also to help cut down cost.
The 1996 Presidential and Parliamentary elections and all similar subsequent elections have been held on December 7, but there have been arguments that the process does not make ample room for the organization of a run-off and the subsequent handover on January 7.
Hence when the Commission opened its doors for people to send proposals for electoral reforms, it was suggested that the election date be changed.
Should Parliament approve the new date, then next year’s elections and subsequent ones would be held on November 7. A principal Public Relations Officer of the Commission, Sylvia Annor confirmed this in an interview with Accra-based radio station, Peace FM on Monday.
This was after the New Statesman newspaper on Monday published a programme of activities by the EC for the electoral Year 2016 that stated that the EC had planned for the elections to be held on November 7, 2016.
Ms Annor explained that a final decision on whether to move it or not would depend on Parliament.
Ghana’s first Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 1992 were held on separate days in November and December respectively.
Following a boycott of the December 1992 Parliamentary elections by the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, under allegations of malpractices in the presidential, there was a decision to hold both elections on the same day so as to be able to prevent a similar boycott in the future.
The move was also to help cut down cost.
The 1996 Presidential and Parliamentary elections and all similar subsequent elections have been held on December 7, but there have been arguments that the process does not make ample room for the organization of a run-off and the subsequent handover on January 7.
Hence when the Commission opened its doors for people to send proposals for electoral reforms, it was suggested that the election date be changed.
All 2016 Election News
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