CODEO to deploy observers for 2012 elections

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) is to train and deploy 4,000 local observers to monitor the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Professor Miranda Greenstreet, the co-Chairperson, said they would be assigned to all the 275 constituencies.

In line with this, the Coalition on Friday began a four-day training workshop in Kumasi for the Regional Coordinators to help them to have better understanding of their expected roles and responsibilities towards ensuring free, fair and transparent polls.

Additionally, the programme would provide the platform to discuss planned training schedules for the up-coming election observation exercise.

Prof Greenstreet said the observers would be using coded messages to rapidly collect reports on the conduct of the voting and counting.

She expressed CODEO’s total confidence in the integrity and credibility of the Electoral Commission (EC) to successfully manage the electoral process.

She was, however, uncomfortable with the many legal actions brought against the EC and secret tapes revealing purported plans by some individuals to destabilize the election.

She said they were interested in making sure that the elections were held in an atmosphere of civility and the outcome, a true reflection of the will of the people.

Prof Greenstreet said “as Ghanaians, our commitment and responsibility must remain rooted in holding the belief that, our collective efforts in speaking against any abuse of the procedural mechanism of our democracy will suffice to prevent Ghana from going down on its knees as in many countries in West Africa”.

She thanked the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-Ghana) for supporting CODEO’s election 2012 project.

Source: GNA