EC PLANS EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTION MATERIALS (PAGE 14)

The Electoral Commission (EC) has put in place a well designed plan for the early and effective distribution of election materials at dawn on the day of the election .
This is to ensure that the materials get to all polling stations as early as possible for the election to begin at 7 o’clock in the morning.
The Director of Human Resource and General Services of the Electoral Commission, Mr Samuel Yorke Aidoo, announced this at a training programme for media practitioners in Sekondi.
"Majority of the materials will go at dawn on the election day because we want the election to start at 7 o’clock as stipulated," he stated.
Mr Aidoo said unforeseen circumstances, such as, rain and other natural occurrences could affect the distribution of the materials, however, the commission had contingency plans to address all situations.
He stressed that an election day marked the critical point of every electoral process since it was the consummation of the process and as such all policies and regulations pertaining to the election had to be adhered to without fail.
He mentioned stakeholders who would be seen at the polling stations as EC officials, executives, candidates and their spouses, local and international observers, security agents and media practitioners, whose roles were all critical to the success of the day.
He, therefore, urged them to commit themselves to their expected roles to achieve a credible election.
Mr Aidoo emphasised that it was erroneous for anyone to think that ballot boxes would be stuffed with ballot papers to the advantage or disadvantage of particular political parties when they were being conveyed to the collation centres.
"This is ridiculous. That is inconsequential; it has no effect on the results after the declaration of the results at the polling station", he said.
A Commission Member, Madam Eunice Akweley Roberts, said the voters register had been cleaned to some extent, but the process was still ongoing.
She said a lot of people had come forward, especially those whose family members were dead, for the deletion of their names from the register.
Also, she said parents of some minors who registered as well as people who had done double registration had come to delete their names, adding that almost everything was set for the election.