A Former Member of Parliament for Ayensuano, Mr Samuel Ayeh-Paye, has advised that party executives and authorities in charge of election release albums a month or two before constituency elections are held.
That, he said will enable delegates check the albums, identify challenges and address them before the election date.
His advice is in response to the chaos that occurred at some polling centres during the constituency election of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which started on Thursday, April 28, 2022.
The Constituency election of the NPP which was held across the country was generally peaceful but some places including Okaikoi South, Yendi, Subin in Kumasi experienced some form of chaos.
At the Okaikoi South, it appeared the names of almost half of the delegates that voted during the polling station station elections had been deleted.
The delegates alleged that they only received the album the night before the constituency election, only to find out that their names had been taken off.
Although they threatened to stop the election, thereby causing chaos, the election was held without them.
At Yendi, the election was suspended due to confusion over which album to use.
At Subin, it was reported that the election was delayed until there was security.
Read Also: Angry delegates at Okaikoi South demand injunction on constituency election
Speaking on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie, Mr Samuel Ayeh-Paye, called on executives and election conductors to ensure that albums are released within a month or two to prevent such situations from re-occurring.
“What happens usually is that when we finish with polling station and coordinators elections, we give an ample time to prepare the album and give all contestants or aspirants a copy of the album to go through it and so if anyone has a challenge, they can raise it before the election day but with this one, I do not know what happened, it looks like after the polling station and coordinators election, the aspirants did not even get a month to do campaign. The time was limited and so I am not sure that they had the opportunity to crosscheck the album before the election day,” he said.
He stressed that, “henceforth, let us ensure that after polling station elections to select our delegates, the album is released and everyone gets a copy a month or two or even three months before the election so that delegates can rectify issues before the election.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori