By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Ghana’s electoral management body, the Electoral Commission (EC), says representatives of Political Parties who attended its meeting held on March 7, 2024, have unanimously approved its proposed electoral calendar for the 2024 general polls.
According to the EC, the political party representatives made some useful inputs into the 2024 election plan before it was approved. The Commission said it indicated its willingness to implement a number of the suggestions that they made.“Political Parties at the meeting unanimously commended the Electoral Commission for the preparation of a comprehensive calendar to govern the 2024 elections,” a communique signed by the Ag. Head of Public Affairs, Michael Boadu said.
The Communique said the following decisions were arrived at:The calendar for the 2024 Election released by the Commission was accepted by all members. The Commission informed the meeting that the date for the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections namely; the 7th of December remains unchanged. In that vein the election would be held on Saturday 7th December, 2024. Legal processes to move the General elections to November will however be commenced with the submission of a Memo to the Attorney-General.
The proposal to bring the election date forward to November will take place in 2028.The Commission would not introduce new Constitutional Instruments (C.I.s) ahead of the Voter Registration Exercise and the General Elections. The existing C.I.s will remain in force.The Electoral Commission will maintain the indelible ink as the electoral stain for the marking of voters in the 2024 General Elections.The Limited Voter Registration Exercise will be for a twenty-one (21) day period commencing, Tuesday 7th May to Monday 27th May, 2024.
The exercise will be conducted at the District Offices of the Electoral Commission and in difficult to access Electoral Areas. Permanent centres will be set up at the District offices while mobile teams would be used to register eligible applicants in the difficult to access Electoral Areas. The list of registration centres will be provided to the Political Parties no later than twenty-one (21) days to the Registration exercise.The filing fees for the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections will remain the same as in 2020.The Commission released the calendar for the election on March 4, in which it said that results of the presidential election will be released within 72 hours.
