EC to use manual and machine verification for Election 2016
Mr. Kwame Amoah, the Greater Accra Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, (EC) has said there would be both manual and machine verification of voters for the 2016 Election.
“This means if a person gets disqualified by means of the verification machine, the voter would have the alternate option of manual verification,” he explained. “Your finger print could get distorted because of a scar or some other similar interruption.”
Mr. Amoah was speaking at a Capacity Building Seminar on Media Reportage for the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Accra.
“A person’s finger print could easily be distorted for a legitimate reason, and that should not mean a legitimate voter should be disqualified,” he said.
Mr. Amoah said the EC had laid down measures to ensure that no qualified voter was wrongfully denied his right to vote.
On other aspects of the Election, he said, the EC had also gone the extra mile to ensure that election officials such as the returning and presiding officers had genuine interest in the success of the election and were not political party affiliates.
He said besides selecting polling officials by standards that ensured their efficiency, these officials would also be thoroughly trained on all the critical issues that bordered on the success of the Election.
Mr. Amoah said whilst party agents served the interest of their respective political parties and their presence at polling centres was legal, they had no right to cause any form of chaos.
He advised political party leaders to thoroughly educate their agents on the need to be law abiding on the Election Day.
“Political parties should choose the right agents, who would express their misgivings within the confines of the law, and not stir trouble unnecessarily,” said Mr. Amoah.
A collaboration between the Electoral Commission of Ghana and the European Union Project -2016, the two-day seminar was attended by a cross section of journalists from both the state and private media.
Source: GNA