EC is ready for December 2 special voting – Jean Mensa

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has confirmed its preparedness for the special voting exercise scheduled for Monday, 2nd December 2024. According to Chairperson Jean Mensa, the Commission has put in place the necessary measures to ensure a smooth process.

In a meeting with the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF) on Tuesday, 26th November, she noted that the Commission had completed several preparations for the upcoming election, including the nationwide distribution of the Voters’ Register.

Mrs Mensa revealed that the nationwide distribution of presidential and parliamentary ballot papers would be completed on 26th November. She stated:

We are also near completion with our ballots, the preparation of our ballots for the presidential and parliamentary elections, and all the ballots, with the exception of the Northern Region, the Bono Region, and the Bono East Region, have been disseminated to our police armories across the country. I’m well aware that the ballot papers for the Northern Region, the Bono Region, and Bono East Region will be disseminated to the police armories.

She also added that the nationwide distribution of biometric verification devices would be completed by the end of the weekend:

We are confident that by this weekend all the biometric verification devices will be safely lodged in the police armories across the country. The biometric verification devices have been sent to over eight regional armories and they are in safekeeping.

The EC Chair further highlighted that the Commission had recruited nearly 210,000 temporary officials, including returning officers, deputy returning officers, presiding officers, and polling assistants, across all over 40,900 polling stations in the country.

We are confident that we’ll have a successful special voting arrangement on Monday, 2nd December. Our officials are in readiness. We have an adequate supply of the ballot papers, indelible ink, and the biometric verification devices are also in place to ensure a smooth and seamless special voting exercise come Monday, 2nd December 2024.

Addressing the meeting, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Chairman of the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, reaffirmed the commitment of all security agencies to protect all citizens and stakeholders.