The Electoral Commission (EC) has rolled out series of reforms to ensure free and transparent elections come December 7.
The reforms, totaling 27, were arrived at after a Special Reform Committee was set up by the EC to unify various recommendations made by the Supreme Court during the 2012 election petition.
The committee was made up of representatives of the political parties, governance institutions, faith-based organisations and civil society organisations.
At an editor’s forum organised by the EC on Tuesday, Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, noted that all the reforms were accepted but for two.Â
1. That membership of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) should be expanded to include civil society organisations.
2. That there should be no voting without biometric verification.
The first, was rejected by the EC on the grounds that, IPAC should remain the platform for engaging political parties only. The CSOs may continue to attend IPAC meetings as observers but not as members.
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On the second, the EC maintained that in the event of a false rejection of a voter by the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs), provision should be made for manual verification to prevent disenfranchisement of voters by the equipment.
click on the here to read all the reforms by the Electoral Commission