![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.ghanamma.com\/uploads\/2014\/09\/816c240x_mg_2afari_gyanonbloatedregister.jpg\")
<\/div>\n
\n
\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has\u00a0asked the Electoral Commission\u00a0(EC) to recruit\u00a0highly-trained people to\u00a0serve as election officials.<\/p>\n
It also called for those\u00a0who act negligently to\u00a0undermine the nation’s\u00a0electoral process to be punished.<\/p>\n
Dr Ransford Gyampo, a\u00a0Research Fellow at IEA, in\u00a0a statement said Presiding\u00a0Officers, Polling Assistants\u00a0and Returning Officers\u00a0played a very crucial role\u00a0in the country’s electoral\u00a0process and therefore the\u00a0credibility of the nation’s\u00a0electoral process as well as\u00a0the acceptance of election\u00a0results as free and fair,\u00a0peaceful and transparent,\u00a0to a large extent, depend\u00a0on these officials.<\/p>\n
‘Where they perform\u00a0their duties efficiently, the\u00a0credibility of the poll is\u00a0guaranteed; but where they\u00a0are incompetent and act negligently, they compromise\u00a0the polls and undermine\u00a0the nation’s electoral\u00a0process.<\/p>\n
‘In the nation’s drive\u00a0towards democratic maturity\u00a0and quest for credible,\u00a0transparent and acceptable\u00a0elections, there is the need for a rethink of the calibre\u00a0of people recruited as election\u00a0officials,’ he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Gyampo said as a\u00a0fledgling democracy, it was\u00a0imperative that the country\u00a0explicitly provided in her\u00a0electoral regulations some\u00a0minimum educational\u00a0qualifications for those\u00a0who apply to be engaged\u00a0as election officials.<\/p>\n
He said currently, the\u00a0EC conducts a written\u00a0examination to select those\u00a0who engage in voter registration\u00a0and other election\u00a0duties.<\/p>\n
However Dr Gyampo\u00a0said in the IEA’s view, it\u00a0was high time the Electoral\u00a0Commission reviewed its\u00a0syllabus and raised the\u00a0standard of the examination.<\/p>\n
‘The regulations\u00a0should provide a minimum\u00a0period for the training of\u00a0the election and registration\u00a0officials before they\u00a0are assigned duties,’ he\u00a0added.<\/p>\n
Dr Gyampo said voter\u00a0education should be intensified\u00a0such that voters will\u00a0take advantage of the exhibition\u00a0of names of proposed\u00a0election officials and\u00a0object to those that they\u00a0know are bias or incompetent.<\/p>\n
Again, he said provision\u00a0should be made in\u00a0order to punish election\u00a0officials who perform their\u00a0duties negligently.<\/p>\n
Dr Gyampo noted;’Apart from polling\u00a0agents, all polling officials\u00a0can also be described as\u00a0officials of the state who\u00a0are paid for services rendered\u00a0during the electoral\u00a0process.<\/p>\n
‘They must therefore\u00a0be held accountable for\u00a0what they do. Knowing the\u00a0thorough details of the task\u00a0of an election official, as\u00a0well as the consequences\u00a0likely to be suffered for\u00a0negligence and dereliction\u00a0of duties, would help in\u00a0ensuring that only competent\u00a0and responsible people\u00a0apply for jobs as election\u00a0officials.’<\/p>\n
By Cephas Larbi
cephrok[email\u00a0protected]<\/p>\n
This article has 0<\/b> comment, leave your comment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t \t<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has\u00a0asked the Electoral Commission\u00a0(EC) to recruit\u00a0highly-trained people to\u00a0serve as election officials.It also called for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}