Senior Law lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Abdul-Baasit Aziz Bamba has said there is no constitutional provision prohibiting campaign activities on the day of election.
Speaking on NewsFile on JoyNews TV, Dr. Aziz Bamba said the law only prohibits individuals from engaging in political campaigning activities in close proximity to the polling centers where the electoral process is being conducted on election day.
He argued that political campaigns that are undertaken far away from the centers where the ballots are being casted on the day of election are permitted by the law.
“The law doesn’t really say you cannot campaign on election day. What the law says is that you cannot do campaigning 500 meters from a polling station. What that basically mean is that if the polling station is 1,000 meters away, nothing prevents you from engaging in some political activities,” he stated.
Explaining the rationale behind the law, Dr. Aziz Bamba said the law is not intended to entirely stop individuals from engaging in political activities but to prevent political activities which could erupt chaos and compromise the credibility of the polls from interfering with the electoral process.
The Law lecturer stated “the purpose is not to interfere with polling activities on the polling day”.
He opined that the practice of not permitting campaigning on a day to the conduct of the polls and on the day of the polls is just a convention and not a law.
Dr. Aziz Bamba, however, believes such a convention must be strictly adhered to as it contributes to the maintenance of aw and order on the day of the polls.
In his view, if campaigning activities are allowed on the day of the polls, it could compromise security since the security personnel will be busy manning the polls.
“It appears that that’s more of a practice over the years. I think once the practice has been that we don’t do any political campaigning on election day, we should stick to that. I think it is a good thing so that we don’t have many issues arising. Remember, on election day, most of our security officers will be deployed for election activities so as much as possible if we could have few areas for the law enforcement, the better for us and our security agencies,” he said.
