EC spells-out electoral offences
The Electoral Commission (EC) has warned that any person found guilty of an electoral offence may be fined or imprisoned for at most two years or both.
For some offences, a person may also be disqualified from voting in subsequent elections or from holding public office.
The EC stated this in the Election 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary Manual tagged: “A Guide to Voters”, made available to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra.
According to the manual, it is an offence for an electoral officer to misconduct himself or herself.
The EC has also cautions voters not to wear any political party dress or take anything whatsoever to the polling station on Election Day that identifies one’s candidate or party.
It advises the electorate not to take part in the actual administration of the election, such as attempting to inspect the Identity Cards of persons who are in the queue to vote or counting the voters after the poll has closed.
It is also an offence for any electorate to give orders to the election staff, or in any way interfere with their work activities.
The electorate, it says, cannot directly confront any person in the polling station.
“If anyone has an objection to make against any person in relation to the election, that person is mandated to tell the Presiding Officer,” it advises.
The Electorate are also forbidden from handling any election material or attempting to supervise the work of the polling staff, or attempting to engage in multiple voting.
The EC explains that indulging in multiple voting is an offence, which attracts punitive sanctions.
It warns the electorate not to attempt to sell or sell; buy or attempt to buy a ballot paper, while they are forbidden from campaigning for a candidate at the polling station.
It is also an offence to remove any notice lawfully exhibited in connection with an election; or to threaten to inflict physical or spiritual injury on a person; or to forge, to print, or be in possession of a ballot paper in any form related to the election.
The EC noted that it is an electoral offence for anyone to make or publish, by written or spoken or by song, a false statement about the personal character of another candidates or the conduct of a political party.
It is also an offence to intentionally destroy a ballot paper; to attempt to vote before the poll officially opens or after it closes; to vote or attempt to vote if you are not qualified to do so.
It is electoral offence to put anything other than a ballot paper into a ballot box when an election is in progress.
Source: GNA