Over 130,000 voters are set to participate in today’s special voting exercise, which is being held across 14 regions in the country. This special arrangement includes personnel from various security agencies, such as the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, the National Intelligence Bureau, the Immigration and Prisons Service, as well as media workers, election officials, and other individuals involved in election-related duties for the upcoming December 7 elections.
Voting for the special exercise is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. and will end at 5 p.m. at designated centers. However, the results from today’s voting will be combined with those cast during the general elections on December 7, with a final declaration to follow after the main election.
Originally, the exercise was planned to take place in 328 voting centers across all 16 regions of the country. But following a change in schedule by the Electoral Commission (EC), voting in the Eastern and Western Regions has been rescheduled to Thursday, December 5, 2024. The decision comes after the EC recalled the ballot papers for these regions due to the leakage of a defaced presidential ballot paper intended for the Eastern Region.
At an emergency meeting of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) held on Sunday, December 1, EC Chairperson Jean Mensa explained that political parties, along with representatives of the 12 presidential candidates, had agreed to reprint the ballot papers for the Eastern and Western Regions in order to maintain the integrity of the election process. She also revealed that the commission would be working with three printing houses to expedite the production of the new ballot papers.
In the larger picture, more than 18 million voters are expected to cast their ballots in the presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, December 7.
The Electoral Commission has expressed its confidence in the readiness of the special voting exercise, emphasizing that it will ensure a free, fair, and transparent process. In a similar vein, the Inspector General of Police and Chairman of the National Election Security Taskforce, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, has pledged to take a “no-nonsense” approach to any attempts at disrupting the 2024 elections.
