Mr. K. K. Sam, Western Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP) made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency
in Takoradi.
He said as a result of the numerous complaints associated with
elections in the country coupled with purported vote rigging and
manipulation, it would be appropriated if the EC put mechanisms in
place early to test the system before the voting time in December.
“This will enable the EC to detect all the errors that might crop
up in the system for early corrections so that it will not degenerate
into electoral disputes and possible unrest,” he said.
Mr Sam urged the EC to draw its election budget early so that it
could seek the necessary financial support from the government and
other donor communities to forestall the irregularities that occurred
in the recent district level elections.
He noted that the EC should start public education on the
biometric registration exercise early to let the public understand the
system in order to forestall any unnecessary propaganda and
dissemination of falsehood by political parties.
Mr Sam added that if the EC implemented the Biometric Voting
system successfully in next year’s polls, it would be a feather in its
cup and serve as a shinning example to other West African countries
and Africa as a whole.
It would be recalled that the government had released 80 million
Ghana cedis to the EC to start preparations on the biometric
registration and verification ahead of the 2012 general elections.
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