"Submit names of those voting on Dec 2"

Page 31: Daily Graphic, November 14, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Electoral Commission (EC) has requested heads of the security services to submit the names of security personnel who will be performing duties on December 7 to the returning officer for each constituency through the applicant’s superior officer before November 24, 2008.
This is to facilitate the processing of the personnel to vote on Tuesday, December 2, 2008, the special voting day for security personnel whose duties on December 7, 2008 will not allow them to vote at the polling stations where they registered.
Special voting centres will be opened in each of the 230 constituencies in the country for that purpose.
A memorandum from the EC, dated November 12, 2008 and addressed to the Inspector-General of Police and the Chief of Defence Staff and copied to all regional directors of the EC, stated that “the list to be prepared by the superior officers of the applicants must contain the following: name of the applicant, voter ID number and polling station code”.
The memorandum, signed by Mr C.O. Addei, requested that “applicants to be considered for special voting must present their voter ID cards to enable the superior officers compile the list”.
Under the heading, “Processing of security personnel for special voting”, the memorandum said the list, when prepared, should be submitted to the regional director of the EC in the region concerned for further action.
The Chairman of the National Election Security Task Force, Mr Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, who is also the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), announced this at a news conference in Accra yesterday to address what the task force described as misconceptions and provide answers to nagging questions in the minds of Ghanaians.
He expressed regret that some politicians had started peddling falsehood that the heads of the security agencies were collecting the voter ID cards of security personnel with a view to preventing them from voting.
He wondered how a superior officer might know which party a subordinate officer was going to vote for, for which reason he or she would collect that subordinate’s ID card to hide.
“I wish to assure all and sundry that no senior or junior officer of any of the security services has been mandated to collect any other officer’s card,” he stated.
Mr Acheampong appealed to politicians to have faith in themselves and in the electoral process to ensure that the democratic path chosen by Ghanaians became the envy of all.
He denied that the security services were in concert with the EC to rig the elections on behalf or a group or some groups.
“With all due respect, we do not see how this can be done, with the aid of the security services either as corporate bodies or individual officers,” he stated.
Mr Acheampong explained that most aspects of the electoral process, from the printing of ballot papers, through the escort of election materials and officials, to the day of the elections when ballot boxes were opened and shown to the public before voting started, were all supposed to be monitored by the agents of the political parties.
“The key agents are representatives of the political parties who monitor the printing of the ballot papers, what happens at the polling stations before, during and after voting and especially the counting of votes and declaration of results for each polling station,” he noted.
“We do not see how any member of this task force or the security services can influence these steps and we shall be very grateful if any individual or political party could give us some hint as to how the security services can or will assist in election malpractice,” he said.
Mr Acheampong noted that commanders of the various services at the national and regional levels were men and women of integrity, consummate professionals who had at least 25 years of diligent and loyal service to Ghana.
According to him, those officers had supervised men and women of the security services in the conduct of elections since 1979 and “if any of them had picked up a reputation for dishonesty, they would not have reached the high pedestal that they occupy now”.
He, therefore, urged politicians to stop whining about the security services and continue with their campaigns in the knowledge that they had nothing at all to fear from the security services.
“If any information comes to notice, it will be fully investigated and any officer found to be indulging in any malpractice will be dealt with according to the regulations of our services and the laws of Ghana,” he assured the nation.