The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, has expressed confidence in the electoral reforms the Commission has put in place and insisted there is no way the election would be rigged in favour of a political party.
Speaking during a meeting with the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on Wednesday, Mrs. Osei assured that the reforms have made the process full proof against any form of rigging.
“There is no way that all of us at the Electoral Commission can change the results. It is really impossible. For you to change the results of the election, you have to be at 29,000 polling stations, change the results on the sheets of all the party agents who are there.”
“Then you have to run to the constituency collation centers, change the results on the sheets again and change the results on the agents’ sheets before you now come and declare it at the head office,” Mrs. Osei added.
“I will need Superman’s powers to be able to do that,” The EC Chair joked.
Biometric Verification Wahala
Mrs. Osei also revealed that every polling station will be allocated two biometric verification devices to avert the challenges that plagued the 2012 elections as a result of breakdown of many of the machines.
Some polling stations across the country were forced to continue with voting the following day after the EC sent new verification machines to support the process.
“If one has a problem or breaks down, we will switch to the second one. There is a backup we will bring from the constituency level to support that polling station,” the EC Chair explained.
In addition, Mrs. Osei noted that the EC has also increased the number of polling stations to 29,000 to ensure that no polling station is going to have more than 850 voters.
“The reason being that we want fewer people on the register of every polling station so there is less pressure on the machines and less pressure on the personnel. Hopefully voting will finish earlier and we an finish the collation earlier and declare the results.”
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