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Ghana to appoint COVID-19 electoral Ambassadors during 2020 polls

Ghana to appoint COVID-19 electoral Ambassadors during 2020 polls

The Electoral Commission (EC) has hinted on plans to appoint “COVID-19 Ambassadors” at various polling stations across the country to ensure the  pandemic is contained during the Election Day.

Deputy Chairman of the commission in-charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, explained that the COVID-19 Ambassador would ensure that all the COVID-19 protocols were observed in each polling station.

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“We are going to ensure that the COVID-19 Ambassadors are giving the relevant training, to function very well,” Dr Asare stated in Accra, during a virtual panel discussion on day one of the STAR-Ghana Foundation two-day virtual learning event to mark the end of the first phase of its Elections 2020 Call programme.

He said the Commission was not relenting on its efforts to provide safer polling stations for voters and called for the support of all.

Dr Asare said in 2016, the threshold for each polling station was 850 voters-no polling station exceeded 850 voters in 2016; stating that “but because of the pandemic in 2020, the Commission is saying, that the maximum number of voters per registration centre is 700

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“… any registration centre that has more than 700 people, we are going to split them into A and B,” he said.

Dr Asare observed that the Commission’s estimation at the centres were about 6.000.

“So, all the 6,000 centres that have registered more than 700 people or there about, we are going to split them into “A” and “B”.”

“So, when you are going to vote, depending on the alphabetical order of your name, you will be either in polling station A or polling station B,” he added.

The idea behind the move, Dr Asare said was that the Commission needed to make sure that they reduced the queues at the polling stations.

“We are working with 33,357 polling stations but because of the splits, we may end up having almost 40,000 polling stations,” he said.

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Dr Asare stated that the EC had also placed the nomination forms online for the candidates; adding that each political party had been given a particular code to be able to access the system online, to contain COVID-19.

For the submission of nomination forms, he indicated that political parties were allowed to do so with a maximum of five people so that they could observe social distancing.

He said for the December polls, only students and security forces taking part in the national election task force would be permitted to transfer their votes.

Alhaji Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, Chief Executive Officer, STAR-Ghana Foundation, on his part said his outfit had committed $250,000 towards phase two of its Elections 2020 Call programme.

He also entreated Ghanaians to observe the needed protocols and closely work with the EC to ensure free and fair elections.

Source: www.spotonnews.net

Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

An Entertainment Columnist, Content Writer, Blogger, Novelist, Poet, and a Publicist. For business or story tip off, contact me on +233 24 646 6866 or email: [email protected]
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