Defaulting Electoral Officers to face severe sanctions
Electoral Officers who would flout the laws of the impending General Election would upon conviction be fined Ghc6,000.00 or serve for two years in prison.
The offences include willfully disenfranchising someone, disclosing the Electoral Commission’s official mark to someone and disrupting the Electoral process.
The Jomoro District Electoral Officer, Mr Isaac A Otoo, who announced this on Tuesday, at Half-Assini in the Western Region, said these were contained in the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 94 approved by Parliament for the Election.
He was speaking on : “The Electoral Process and Biometric Voting System”, at a workshop for young activists of Political Parties.
The Programme was organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) with support from the European Union (EU), under the theme: “Empowering The Youth To Stand Up For Ghana For a Peaceful Election 2016”.
The Commission has embarked on a nationwide programme in 40 selected Districts, including Jomoro, to promote a violence free election.
More than 80 flash points have been identified across the country.
Mr Otoo said any convicted Electoral Officer would also be banned from the Commission for five years.
The District Electoral Officer expressed concern that some Party Agents the EC trained for the last election were dropped along the line by their Parties for untrained ones, which made adverse impact on the election.
He explained that, according to the Law, Party Agents would this time swear an oath before some Magistrates before they could observe the elections, towards ensuring credible polls.
A release from the NCCE has said Political Party Youth Activists had been perceived as perpetrators of electoral violence, with some acting in ignorance of the regulations governing the conduct of Elections, hence the programme.
Other speakers at the programme are Mr Samuel E. Dawson, the District NCCE Director, Mr Abdul Majid Illiasu, the judge of the Half-Assini Magistrate’s Court and Mr Alphonsus Arthur, Western Regional NCCE Director.
The participants were drawn from the National Democratic Congress, New Patriotic Party, People’s National Convention, Convention People’s Party and some Community-based Organisations.
Source: GNA