I was at the beach on election day, I didn’t vote, monitor the polls – Charlotte Osei

Former Chair of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei has said that she did not vote in last year’s elections.

She said she was at the beach on the 7th of December 2020 which was the voting day and also on the 8th and 9th.

Asked why she didn’t monitor and vote during the polls, she said: “Why should I?

“I was at the beach [on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of December 2020], I didn’t vote, I didn’t monitor the elections, why should I? She said on Joy News on Wednesday, August 18.

When the host said he monitored the elections because he was paid by his media house to do so as part of his work, Madam Osei retorted “I wasn’t paid to monitor the elections. So I can’t have time with my children at the beach?”

Regarding electoral reforms undertaken by this current electoral commission, she said any changes or policies that seek to widen the space for inclusiveness should be accepted by all Ghanaians.

She added that policies that seek to make the people feel a sense of ownership of the Ghanaian institutions should also be embraced.

She said these when speaking on Joy News Wednesday, August 18 on some of the electoral reforms proposals introduced by the current leadership of the elections management body.

“My view is that any policies or any reforms that widen the space that creates new avenues for inclusiveness that creates avenues for transparency should be embraced. My view is that anything that makes us feel as citizens in the sense of ownership of our own institutions and create accountability by appointed or elected officials of state should be encouraged.”

The EC has made a number of reform proposals for elections in Ghana.

These include “We propose closing the polls at 3pm rather than 5pm. In 2019, we announced our decision to close the polls at 3pm rather than 5pm, in the 2020 Elections.

“Nonetheless, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stringent, and necessarily time-consuming safety protocols we instituted at our polling stations, we were compelled to put this proposal on hold. Over the past months, however, this proposal has re-surfaced from various sections of the public, and indeed, our own experience from the 2020 Elections has revealed that it is a workable proposal, as, by 1pm, most polling stations were empty, suggesting that this is a workable proposal. Therefore, this is a reform we intend to put forward.

“Again, we propose to do away with the system of periodic nationwide registration exercises and institute an all-around system where citizens who turn 18, or persons who have not previously registered, may visit any district office with their Ghana Card or passport and register as voters.

“This will help us do away with nationwide registration exercises and go a long way to reducing the cost of elections.

We further propose a year-round exhibition system that will enable citizens to check their registration details on their smartphones and other mobile devices.

Citizens would not need to wait for an exhibition exercise to check their details. They will be able to do so, all year round.

We propose to build further efficiency into our collation process by focusing on data entry only at the Constituency Collation Centre. The entry point for data capturing into the system will be at the Constituency Collation Centre.

The data i.e. Constituency Collation Results will be made available to all stakeholders at the Regional and National levels. Flowing from the data captured at the Constituency Collation Centre, the system will generate regional and national reports without further data entry at any of those levels.

By adopting this system, the problem of minor inaccuracies with the collation process and unnecessary delays will be reduced significantly.