Assure that closing polls at 3PM will not disenfranchise any eligible voter – Ahiagbah tells EC

The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Richard Ahiagbah has told the Electoral Commission (EC) to ensure that the proposal to close polls at 3PM in the 2024 elections, instead of the usual 5PM, if implemented, will not disenfranchise any eligible voter who may have to travel long hours to the polling center to cast their ballot.

Mr Ahiagbah indicated that the governing party is cautiously optimistic about this proposal.

” It is not a new proposal, they are just calling and giving us a further justification for why they think it would work.

“For us in the NPP, I think we received this with cautious optimism, with the understanding that they would ensure that no voter is denied the occasion to vote if they are in line and qualified to vote.

“Apart from people being in line before 3PM, if for one reason or the other, at some places where people have to travel long distances to come to the polling stations. Sometimes, people are working and plan to come later, we hope those situations would not come up and a good number of people will be disenfranchised. If they can show us the comfort that the polling stations will work efficiently,” Mr Ahiagbah said on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Thursday, December 14.

The Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa, while making the proposal to finish voting at 3PM, indicated that this would allow electoral officers to collate the votes in broad daylight to ensure transparency and orderliness.

Speaking during an inter-party dialogue and stock-taking conference organized by the National Peace Council in Accra on Thursday, December 14, she intimated that the proposal stems from the experience in the 2020 elections where about 70 percent of voting centres were empty by 1:00pm.

“In 2020, 70 percent of our polling centres had a voter threshold of 500 and below. This time, we intend to ensure that all our polling station centers have a threshold of 500 voters and below. In the same vein, we will increase the number of our polling stations nationwide.

“We believe that this will go a long way to reduce the long queues that characterize our elections and allow for a smooth, seamless, hustle-free voting process. In 2020, it took voters not more than five minutes to cast their votes due to the introduction of this policy.

“Based on our 2020 experience and also feedback from several observer groups, we propose to close the polls at 3:00pm.

“Our experience in 2020 reveals that by 1:00pm, 70 percent of our polling stations were empty of voters as most voters had cast their votes. This made it possible because the threshold of most polling centers was reduced to 500 voters per voting center.

“This was coupled with the robust verification devices that were deployed to the polling stations. We are convinced that by closing the polls at 3:00pm, we will be able to count and collate in broad daylight and this will promote the needed transparency and orderliness that we so desire,” Mrs. Mensa said.