Majority of journalists can’t vote under Special voting – GJA

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) says majority of journalists cannot vote under Special Voting in the December polls because their details are missing in the Special Voting list.

According to the GJA, they have resolved with the EC to allow journalists a special dispensation on election day since they cannot vote as Special voters on December 1.

“Once the list was published, the EC didn’t have to tell us that if you didn’t get the chance to vote on the 1st, the next thing will be for you to vote on the 7th of December. The point is, the list was published and it was not as though we were given the list earlier.

“There was no provisional list otherwise, we’d have seen the anomalies and had it rectified. It’s not the best that journalists can’t vote early because I have had a personal experience as a journalist and the inconvenience wasn’t a good thing,” the General Secretary of the GJA Kofi Yeboah told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday.

Reacting to the development, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission said majority of people who filed for Special Voting have been captured by the EC’s list.

“We have captured majority of the people who registered for Special voting. Over 109,000 names have been captured and that is the Majority. For the situation with the GJA I think journalists should ask from where they sent their names. They had issues with the compilation of the details of their members”.

Meanwhile, security analyst Adam Bonaa says majority of security officials have their names missing on the electoral commission’s special voters list.

According to him, the development portends danger for the country in the December 7, polls.

The Electoral Commission released the list of Special voters on November 9, 2020. Special voters are individuals whose services will be required on voting day such security officials and journalists and so are allowed to vote ahead of election day. Special Voting will take place on December 1,2020 while the main polls will happen on December 7.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, Mr Bonaa said the challenge must be addressed before election day.

“I know a senior officer who registered in his hometown and wanted to go and vote there. He goes to check and his name is not on the list. He goes around and finds out that his name is in Navrongo and even that, his name was spelt wrongly. I can tell you without fear that some units have about 99% of their personnel missing on the special voter’s list and these are real challenges,” he said.