Gbande gives EC grounds upon which NDC will accept proposal to close polls at 3PM

Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has told the Electoral Commission (EC) to build consensus among political parties on the proposal to end voting at 3 PM in the 2024 general elections.

For the proposal to work, he stated, the EC will also have to convey voting materials to all the voting centers in record time to allow for voting to start at the scheduled time of 7AM.

He recounted that during the 2020 elections, electoral materials arrived at some polling centers late, forcing the process to start at 11AM.

Asked for his views on the proposal to close polls at 3PM while speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Thursday, December 14, Gbande said, “It will depend on the assurance from the EC that it will be able to convey voting materials and machines and its officers will start work on time.  We have had circumstances where up to about 10AM and 11AM,  elections haven’t started in various polling centers and that is the major cause of the queues that you see even after the poll close. So we should deal with the fundamental issues.

“We believe that the EC is under the obligation to exonerate itself by building a robust system and also restoring credibility. A party like the NDC is willing to support the EC  to build a transparent, rigging-free election. So, they must come out and give us the road map and the road map to get the consensus, that is why we say the purpose of the IPAC is to build consensus. Once we can build consensus among political parties and we are convinced that this particular initiative will offer transparent, credible, free and fair elections, the NDC will be for it ultimately.”

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.