All security personnel whose names were missing from the special voters’ register list and were unable to cast their vote can exercise their franchise on Wednesday, December 7 during the general elections.
Hundreds of special voters engaged for electoral duties on December 7 could not cast their vote in the first round of special voting on Thursday due to widespread exclusion of names; a situation that prompted a second round of voting Sunday.
The situation was no different Sunday as most of the personnel could again not find their names on the special register at their respective polling centres across the country.
Many of them, mostly police and military personnel, who fear being disenfranchised in this year’s election have threatened to boycott their electoral duties if they are not allowed to cast their vote by close of poll Sunday.
The Electoral Commission had indicated at an emergency IPAC meeting Thursday night that any security officer who misses Sunday’s window of opportunity to exercise his franchise will not be allowed to vote on December 7.
But Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu explained to TV3 Sunday that the affected officers could vote on Wednesday if their names were indeed not on the special voters’ list.
“If you go and your name is not on the list of list of December 1 and you’re at the polling station and you couldn’t vote. If it is found out that your name is not on the list, what it means is that either your name was not submitted or it was submitted but your data was not accurate and therefore your name could not be found on the database for you to be on the voters’ roll. So once your data is not on the voters’ roll, you cannot vote today you have to vote on the 7th December.
That is why this arrangement have been made with the Police high command to redeploy all such persons to constituencies where they registered so that they will be able to vote on 7th of December .
“To the extent that your name is not on the voters’ list; once your name is not on the special voters list, you’ll not be disenfranchised. What it means is that you’ve just not applied for special voting so your name is still in the [main voters’] register for you to vote on the 7th December,” he told Brigh Nana Amfo on a special edition of New Day Sunday.
“But where your name is on the special voters list in your constituency but you don’t go to vote, what it means is that your name will also be on the absent voters lists which will mean that you’ve already voted or it will be presumed that you’ve voted,” he explained, adding such people cannot vote on December 7.
He said it was against this background that the Commission has proposed to the Police high command to redeploy their officers so that the affected personnel would be sent to their respective constituencies for them to vote on December 7 and perform their duties there.
Mr Dzakpasu explained some names were missing from the special voters’ register list because some of the names were not submitted to the Commission while some of those submitted also had wrong details.
“We had lists where we had names without any data whatsoever in terms of voter number and polling station code. At the point of entry into the system, we realized that the code given is not accurate; is not valid so such a person we cannot have his name on the special list,” he said.
He added: “Either it was not submitted at all or it was submitted but your data was not accurate,” he said, adding “when your name comes with a code and it is entered into the system, if it is not accurate, your name, your details cannot pop up for you to be on the [special] voters’ roll.
“So also if your name is not submitted at all you cannot be on the special voters list. In that case once your name is not on the special voters list you will not be able to vote [in the special voting]
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