The Electoral Commission of Ghana says it “will try” to publish all results from polling stations within 21 days after voting on its website.
This is expected to help individuals and parties that may want to file any election petition to get access to the detailed results.
It follows a recommendation by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), which says this will help to improve the country’s position on democracy rankings.
In an interview with TV3 on Friday, August 9, 2024, the Director of Training at the Commission, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, said will fulfill all recommendations in line with the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 127.
“We are promising that for the polling station results, because of the quantum nature of the work, we will try and do that before the 21 days that are required for the filing of the petition. But for the constituency, regional and national ones, we will try and put them there before we declare the results.”
“If you look at the constituency collation results, they will see that all the polling station results are there. The parties will have to look at it and accept that these are a true reflection of the collated results,” he said.
Speaking at a seminar on publication of election results, Senior Research Fellow at IDEG, Prof. Kwesi Jonah, said this will help to avert any possible threats to the country’s democracy.
Ghana has witnessed electoral petitions at the Supreme Court over the years on allegations of faulty procedures at the polling stations.
“We know that there are certain weaknesses, certain lapses in our democracy and some of these weaknesses relate to the electoral process.
“The European Union which since 2012, has consistently observed elections in Ghana has always come out with certain recommendations to help us to reform in order to fast track our democracy and not to backtrack it.”
“One of them has to do with the publication of polling station by polling station results officially on the websites of the Electoral Commission,” he said.
The Electoral Commission is also seeking to publish all guidelines and procedures on irregularities on its website.
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By Christian Yalley
