2024 election activity: Voter Registration starts May 7  • no new CIs for polls • election date remains unchanged

 Registration of voters for the presiden­tial and parliamentary elections will commence on May 7, this year, the Electoral Commission (EC) disclosed in Accra on Friday.

The 21-day exercise would end on Monday, May 27, 2024, the Commission said in a communique it issued after an Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting it had with the political parties in Accra on Thursday.

“The exercise will be conducted at the district offices of the Electoral Commis­sion and in difficult-to-access Electoral Areas.

“Permanent centres will be set up at the district offices while mobile teams would be used to register eligible appli­cants in the difficult-to-access electoral areas,” the communique, signed by Michael Boadu, Acting Head of Public Affairs at the Commission, said.

Between Tuesday, May 14, 2024 and Tuesday, June 4, 2024, the communique indicated that the District Registration Review Committees would be sitting to consider registration challenges.

It said from Thursday, May 30, 2024 to Friday, June 14, 2024, application and compilation of transfer of votes and proxy votes would be executed.

The Commission is aiming to furnish the political parties with the provisional voters register between Tuesday, July 8, 2024 and Thursday, July 18, 2024 and exhibit same between Monday, July 15, 2024 and Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

The final register is expected to be presented to the political parties between Friday, August 30, 2024 and Thursday, September 5, 2024.

According to the election manage­ment body, no new Constitutional Instruments (CIs) would be introduced ahead of the registration exercise and the general election.

“The existing CIs will remain in force,” the Communique emphasised.

This means that “the date for the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections namely; December 7, remains un­changed. In that vein, the election would be held on Saturday, December 7, 2024.

“Legal processes to move the general elections to November will, however, be commenced with the submission of a memo to the Attorney-General. The proposal to bring the election date forward to November will take place in 2028,” the communique indicated.

The Commission also said it would maintain the indelible ink as an electoral stain for the marking of voters in the pending polls.

The Commission in the 2023 District Level Elections did not mark voters with the indelible ink, arguing that with a bio­metric register, one could not vote twice.

That justification was rejected by the political parties and election watchers who said the credibility of the polls could be compromised because of the manual verification for voters whose biometrics may not respond on the day of election.

Meanwhile, the filing fees for pres­idential and parliamentary candidates remain pegged at GH¢100,000 and GH¢10,000 respectively as was the case in the 2020 election.

 BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI

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