Ahead of Ghana’s general elections scheduled for December 7, 2024, the Electoral Commission of Ghana conducted a Special Voting exercise to allow election officials, security personnel, and media practitioners to cast their ballots early.
However, according to the rules of the commission, ballots cast during the Special Voting will not be counted until after polls close on the main election day.
During voting on Monday, December 2, 2024, the Electoral Officer for the Odododiodio Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Eric Okyere, explained to GhanaWeb TV’s George Ayisi what happens to Special Voting ballot papers after the close of polls.
“For Special Voting, we don’t count the ballots for peculiar reasons. So, after 5 PM, when the voting has come to an end, we seal all the ballot boxes, both for the parliamentary and presidential elections. Then we send them to the police station, to their armory, until the general voting day, which is December 7. On that day, we will bring them out, add them to the total number of votes that will be counted and collated. So, that is the process; we don’t count it just after the process but wait until the collation day when we put all the votes together and are able to make a declaration,” he stated.
In an earlier statement ahead of the Special Voting, the Electoral Commissioner, Jean Mensa, shed further light on the counting of ballots for the exercise.
She stated that votes cast during the Special Voting will not be counted on the day of the exercise. Instead, she said they will be counted on December 7 at the constituency collation centres and added to the results from the main election.
The returning officer at each constituency collation centre will record these results separately on both the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Results Collation Forms before including them in the final tally from all polling stations.
To ensure security, all ballot boxes are sealed and stored in a secured room at a police station within each constituency.
The Special Voting exercise allows eligible voters involved in election-related duties, including election officials, security personnel, and media practitioners, to cast their ballots early.
A total of 131,478 voters, representing 0.007 percent of the total registered voter population of 18,741,159, were expected to participate in the Special Voting exercise.
The exercise began at 0700 hours and ended at 1700 hours.
The exercise was initially scheduled to take place across 328 centers nationwide but was rescheduled for eligible voters in the Western and Eastern regions following the recall of ballots for the two regions.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
