Prime News Ghana

We are grateful for the extra month - EC

By www.primenewsghana.com
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The Electoral Commission (EC) is adjusting its calendar to suit the December 7 election date. That follows the outcome of Parliament rejecting November 7 as the proposed date for Election 2016.

Throwing more light on the situation in an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Director of Electoral Services of the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, said the inability of Parliament to endorse the November 7 election day would not affect the programme line-up of the commission.

Ample time

Rather, he said the reversion to the December 7 date had given it an ample and a relatively liberal time frame to go about its activities.

“There is no way that the date change can affect our plans,” Mr Tettey stressed.

He said all this while, the commission had prepared itself to conduct the polls on November 7 and that the inability of Parliament to make the necessary constitutional amendment had rather provided it more time.

Explaining further, he said it would have been a different story if the date had been fixed earlier than November 7 in which case the commission would have had time constraints.

“But as it stands now, we have been given an extra one month and that should even make us more comfortable,” he stressed.

Filing of nominations

The next thing to be done, he said, was for the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, Mr Amadu Sulley, to set the date for the filing of nominations following which the Office of the Director of Elections would be notified for the next line of action.

He gave indications that the top hierarchy of the commission was scheduled to meet yesterday and that the date for the filing of nominations would be announced shortly.

Background

Last Thursday in Accra, Parliament went into a secret ballot to decide on the proposed November 7 polls that was being pursued by the EC through the Attorney-General’s Department.

The House needed two-thirds majority of members to vote for the proposed change in the election date.

At the end of the polls, 125 MPs voted in favour of the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill, 2016 while 95 objected to it.

That meant that the Bill failed to secure the required two-thirds majority of members to go through as the Constitution demanded.

The polls followed a heated debate over the Bill by both sides of the House.

While the Majority side argued that the proposed November 7 polls, if approved, would afford enough time for the transition process in the event that there was a change in government, the Minority argued that they supported the Bill in principle but the preparedness of the EC, among other requirements, was not too convincing to warrant their request as reported by graphic.com.gh.

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