EC Ghana

The Commission wishes to announce for the information of the General Public, especially voters in the Buem Constituency that the 7th December 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections will take place in the Buem Constituency as scheduled from 7:00am to 5:00pm. However, as a result of the creation of the Guan District Local Government (Guan District Assembly) (Establishment) Instrument, 2020 and pending the creation of the Guan Constituency, eligible voters in the Guan District will vote only in the Presidential Election but not in the Parliamentary Election in the Buem Constituency. Voters in the Guan District are to take note of this Directive from the Electoral Commission. ELECTORAL COMMISSION

The Electoral Commission of Ghana wishes to inform the General Public that ahead of the General Election next week, it has established a Call Centre to enable Voters relay their concerns and feedbacks to the Commission on the Election Day. The Call Centre will be managed by trained Staff of the Commission. The objective of this initiative is to provide prompt responses to Voters so as to improve the voting experiences on Election Day. A Toll Free number 0800-100-100 has been secured for this purpose. As such callers will not be charged for calls made to the Toll Free Number. The Call Center will be in operation on Monday the 7th of December 2020 from 6am to 6pm. Callers may use any network to contact the Commission’s Officials on this number. ELECTION 2020; TOWARDS CREDIBLE, TRANSPARENT AND PEACEFUL ELECTIONS.

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, I warmly welcome all of you to today’s “Let the Citizen Know”. It is refreshing to be here, and we thank the good Lord for His Faithfulness. We could never have come this far without Him and for that we are eternally grateful. To you our distinguished citizens, we thank you for believing in us and for walking this journey with us. Your feedback has been constructive and has helped strengthen our work and processes. To you our media partners, we thank you for your consistency. You have been our gate way to the good people of Ghana. We couldn’t have engaged with the citizenry without you. Thank you. The purpose of today’s “Let the Citizen Know” is to brief you on the Final Voters Register ahead of the 2020 election. We assured you that we would provide you with updates on a number of issues that were raised regarding the Register so as to put these issues to rest once and for all. In fulfilment of that promise we are here this morning to put to rest concerns and questions raised regarding the Register ahead of the elections next week. Exactly a week today to be precise. This morning my presentation will focus on the following issues. Total Number of persons on the final Voters Register. Number of persons who registered but whose biometric and biographic details are not on the register. Number of persons on the Multiples List Number of persons on the Exceptions List New Application for Checking Details of Registrants. Special Voting Total Number Of Persons On The Final Voters Register I am pleased to inform you that the Final Voters Register has a total of seventeen million and twenty-seven thousand, six hundred and forty-one (17,027,641) registrants who are eligible to vote come December 7th, 2020. Of the total number of registered voters, females constitute eight million, eight hundred and ten thousand, two hundred and eighty-three (8,810,283) representing 51.74% of the total Register while males amount to eight million, two hundred and seventeen thousand, three hundred and fifty-eight (8,217,358), representing 48.26% of the total Register. Greater Accra has the highest number of female and male registrants. The region with the lowest number of female and male registrants is North East Region. Below is the total number of registered Voters per Region on the Final Voters Register: Region No of Valid  Voters   Western 1,187,333 1 million 187 thousand and 3 hundred and 33 Central 1,567,756 1 million 567 thousand 7 hundred and 56 Greater Accra 3,528,996 3 million 528 thousand 9 hundred and 96 Volta 924,116 9 hundred and 24 thousand, 1 hundred and 16 Eastern 1,641,050 1 million 6 hundred and 41 thousand and 50 persons Ashanti 3,019,178 3 million 19 thousand 1 hundred and 78 persons Western North 468,683 4 hundred and 68 thousand, 6 hundred and 83 Ahafo 316,970 3 hundred and 16 thousand, 9 hundred and 70 Bono 653,378 6 hundred and 53 thousand, 3 hundred and 78 Bono East 594,610 5 hundred and 94 thousand, 6 hundred and 10 Oti 358,552 3 hundred and 58 thousand, 5 hundred and 52 Northern 1,050,016 1 million 50 thousand and 16 persons Savannah 298,404 2 hundred and 98 thousand, 4 hundred and 4 persons Upper West 469,753 4 hundred and 69 thousand, 7 hundred and 53 North East 289,529 2 hundred and 89 thousand, 5 hundred and 29 Upper East 659,317 6 hundred and 59 thousand, 3 hundred and 17 Totals 17,027,641 17 million, 27 thousand and 6 hundred and 41 I will now address the issue of the persons whose names have been placed on the Multiples and Exceptions list. For the information of the General Public this information has been given to the Political Parties. It was provided to them on the 7th of November 2020 together with the Voters Register. Multiples List The total number of multiple registrations on the Multiples list today stands at fifteen thousand, eight hundred and sixty (15,860). We have seen a decrease in the number because some of these persons proceeded to court and had their objections overturned by the court. By its name this list refers to the number of multiple registrations done by unique individuals. It does not refer to unique individuals. As such, if a person registered five (5) times, all five registrations will be recorded on the list although the five registrations were undertaken by one person. The number of unique individual who conducted the multiple registration is however, seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety (7,890) It is instructive to note that the Multiples List is not generated by the Staff of the Commission. This list is generated by the ABIS system when it detects multiple registrations by a unique individual when the same set of fingerprints pop up for persons bearing different names. The system picks this up and isolates the registrant. This is not done by staff of the commission. I emphasize this to allay the fears or perception of the Commission deliberately removing names of registrants from the Register. When a person with a unique set of fingerprints registers multiple times, this is flagged and picked up by the system and the names and details are isolated on the Multiples list. Exceptions List Again, there has been perceptions that the EC is deliberating removing persons from the register and placing them on the Exceptions list.  This is false. The Exceptions list refers to unique individuals who conducted various forms of electoral malpractices including underage registration, registration by foreigners, and registration by persons not ordinarily resident in the area where they wish to register and registrations by persons of unsound mind. To date, we have a total number of 13,997 persons on the Exceptions list. It is important to note that the list was developed as a result of the citizens at the grass root level challenging and objecting to registration of certain persons. During the

The Electoral Commission has noted a news item carried by Joy News depicting the burning of ballot papers. We place on record that the assertions made in the video by an agent of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are false and entreat the public to disregard it. For the attention of the public, seven (7) local printing houses were engaged to print the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary ballot papers. After such a massive printing exercise, there is always waste or damaged ballots which are shredded by each printing house in the presence of Political Party Agents. These shredded ballots are then burnt in incinerators; together with the plates that bear the design of each ballot. It is important to emphasize that the burning takes place in incinerators owned and located within some printing houses such as Buckpress, and in public incinerating sites if the printing houses do not have such a plant. The Political Party agents located in the printing houses are informed about the shredding and burning of waste ballots and as part of the process, they are made to sign an undertaking of consent. This is a routine process that has been in place at the Electoral Commission. It is not new. The Commission clarifies the events that led to the burning of waste products at the Old Fadama Mortuary Road Incineration Site as follows:▪ On Wednesday, 25th of November, 2020, it was agreed between Political Parties, Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Ghana Police Service, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and staff of Innolink Printing House that waste and damaged ballots would be burnt at the Old Fadama Mortuary Road Incineration Site.▪ The above listed stakeholders, including the agent of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) signed an undertaking to this effect. The burning was to take place on the 27th November, 2020.2▪ For transparency and accountability, we attach a copy of the certificate of disposal as signed by all the above stakeholders. After the ballots were shredded at the printing house, the Political Parties, in full knowledge that the burning at the Mortuary Road Incineration Plant was of shredded ballot papers, did not go to witness it.▪ It appears the NDC agent took advantage of their absence and invited a journalist from Joy News to cover the burning, and falsely claimed that the ballots being burnt were the 1 million extra ballots the Commission had allegedly printed. His motive was to justify the earlier fabrications put out on social media to the effect that the Commission was secretly printing additional ballots. This is most unfortunate.Indeed, it is difficult to understand how the Commission would secretly print one million ballots and then openly, in broad daylight, burn all the ballots in the presence of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Political Parties. We find it unfortunate that the Joy News reporter did not verify this erroneous, misleading fabrication by the NDC agent. From the video, it is obvious that the papers being burnt are shredded, therefore it is most unfortunate that a Joy News Reporter would put out such a story. This is an affront to sound journalistic principles and ethics, and we call on Joy News Management to take this matter up and correct the erroneous impression put out to the public.The Commission assures the general public that only the specified number of ballot papers was printed in all 7 printing houses. This comprises the actual number of voters per constituency plus five percent only.We entreat all media houses to be circumspect in their reportage as we inch closer to the elections since their reports have the potential to either maintain or negatively impact the peace of our dear nation.  

MEDIA ACCREDITATION FOR THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL & PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONSThe Electoral Commission wishes to announce for the information of the Media that the period for the submission of applications for accreditation to cover the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections has been extended. All interested local and international media who have not yet submitted their requests for accreditation to cover the upcoming polls at the polling stations and various Constituency and Regional Collation Centres are hereby requested to do so by 5:00pm on Monday 30th November, 2020 to the Procurement Department of the EC.Kindly provide the following information:▪ Full name▪ Passport Size Photograph▪ Media house▪ Region of jurisdictionAll applications should be addressed to:THE HEAD OF PROCUREMENT,ELECTORAL COMMISSION GHANAP.O.BOX M 214ACCRA.

The Electoral Commission has published the Special Voters List on its website for the perusal of registered Special Voters who will vote on 1st December, 2020.The Special Voters List comprises names of Registered Voters from the security agencies, the media and staff of the Electoral Commission who will work on elections day.The soft copies of the Special Voters List has also been provided to the representatives of organizations participating in the Special Voting to enable their members verify their details and locations ahead of time. The publication of the Special Voters List will enable Registered Special Voters to know their various Polling Stations ahead of time. This will promote a seamless and timely electoral process.All registered Voters on the Special Voters List will be able to cast their ballots on 1st December only. It is therefore necessary that Applicants take the necessary steps to verify their details to avoid being disenfranchised as they will not be allowed to vote on the 7th of December 2020, should they miss the Special Voting Facility. The Commission wishes to inform the General Public that all names on the Special Voters List will not appear in the main register on 7th December, 2020.Find below the list of organizations which applied for the Special Voting and which have been provided soft copies of the Special Voters List. Ghana Armed Forces National Intelligence Bureau (formerly BNI) National Security Ghana Immigration Service Ghana National Fire Service Information Services Department National Ambulance Service Customs Service Prisons Service Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Ghana Police Service National Media Commission 2020 ELECTIONS; TOWARDS A CREDIBLE, TRANSPARENT ANDPEACEFUL ELECTIONS!