EC succumbs to opposition, backtracks on election date change, no indelible ink proposal

The Electoral Commission has succumbed to stiff opposition against its proposal to change the date of elections and remove the use of indelible ink in verifying voters ahead of the December general elections.

The election management body had proposed to shift the date of the 2024 Elections from the usual December 7 to a day in November.

It had also indicated its intention to discontinue the use of indelible ink.

But the main opposition National Democratic Congress vehemently resisted the move.

The party argued that it was too late in the day to make such significant changes to the electoral processes.

On the proposal to discontinue the use of indelible ink, the NDC was not the only stakeholder to oppose.

Leader of the Majority Caucus in Parliament also cautioned the commission against the move.

Yielding to the opposition, the commission has announced that it has aborted its plans to make the said changes ahead of the 2024 Elections.

The Deputy Chairperson of the commission in charge of Corporate Services Dr. Bossman Asare said it was impossible for the EC to pass through with the date change since the NDC and its side in Parliament were against it.

“We had a meeting with our political parties and one of the major parties indicated clearly that they don’t support the change of date from December to November in 2024. As a commissioner, knowing the law requiring that to have such a change, you have to go to parliament, to have two-thirds of the members of Parliament approving of that particular change, the commission has resolved that we are going to have the election come December 7^th as we did in 2020,” he said in an interview on JoyNews.

He added that the commission backtracked on its bid to stop the use of indelible ink in order not to erode confidence in the processes.

“As a listening institution, we’ve heard the concerns of the general public, we’ve heard the concerns of parliamentarians across the aisle – the NDC and the NPP, Civil Society members, so we’ve come to the conclusion that if by using the indelible ink, people will have more confidence in the process, why not?”