The European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission to Ghana (EU EOM), has made a follow-up to National Peace Council (NPC) on Ghana’s 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections observations and recommendations submitted in 2021.
The team led by the Chief Observer and a member of the European Parliament from Spain, Javier Nart, was to find out the level of work done on the recommendations made from the 2020 elections monitored by the EU, and to strengthen already existing ties towards a peaceful upcoming election in 2024, thereby building sustainable peace in the country.
The National Peace Council, said the it is on course to meet the recommendations raised by the EU EOM.
However, shortcomings already identified by previous EU election observation missions remained such as the misuse of state resources, the abuse of incumbency, vote-buying and unregulated campaign finances, which resulted in an uneven playing field.
The Mission, therefore, recommended that procedures for presiding and returning officers and regional collation officers be stipulated on how to proceed in cases of irregularities during the counting and collation process, including over-voting, mismatched reconciliation, incomplete and wrongly filled in result forms.
This would require political parties to adopt party quotas to promote women’s participation in politics.
Among the participants included elections stakeholders such as the Deputy Electoral Commissioner, Dr Bossman Asare, Director of Electoral Services, Electoral Commission, Dr Sereboe Quaicoe, Prof. Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, Supreme Court Judge, Mr Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, Supreme Court Judge, Political Party Reps, the media and others.
Dzifa Hukporti, ISD
