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EC to recruit 30,110 temporary electoral officers
Accra, Sept. 12, Ghanadot/GNA – The Electoral Commission
(EC) on Friday announced the recruitment of 30,110 temporary
staffs to supplement its permanent staff strength of 1,500
for Election 2008 operations.
The temporary staffs would be made up of 230 Returning
Officers (RO), 460 Deputy Returning Officers, about 21,004
Presiding Officers, and about 84,016 Polling Assistants.
Each Constituency would be managed by one Returning Officer
and two deputies, whilst the Polling stations would be
administered by one Presiding Officer to be supported by
four Polling Assistants, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, EC Chairman
stated during the fourth in a series of educational seminar
and study tour of the commission’s facilities by regional
representatives of political parties.
The fourth study tour was organised by the Commission and
attended by political party representatives from the Central
and Eastern, who were educated on the operations of the EC,
the structure of the commission, operations at both the data
processing and elections departments and other electoral
issues.
Dr. Afari-Gyan, said selection criteria would be based on
their experience in electoral duties, competence, political
neutrality and commitment.
“All qualified temporal staffs would be taken through
comprehensive training manual before final confirmation,” he
said.
On the electoral framework, the EC Chairman said the
commission has fixed September 12th to 16th for people who
started the registration formalities during the recent
Limited Voter Registration Exercise but due to operational
hiccup could not complete the formalities take their
photographs.
October 5 to 11 has been projected for exhibition of the
Provisional Voter’s Register to afford persons who had
applied to be registered the opportunity to verify and,
where necessary, to request for the correction of errors in
their particulars on the register.
He said the exhibition would also afford the persons whose
names had been inadvertently omitted the opportunity to
request for their names to be included in the register.
The exhibition would also afford the general public the
opportunity to object to any ineligible names – people under
18 years, or foreigners on the register.
Dr Afari-Gyan called on the general public to assist the
Commission clean the register as the current provisional
list contains names which should not be there.
The EC Chairman noted that democracy calls for
self-discipline and self-policing by all stakeholders
including politicians, journalists, electoral officials,
security officials and the general public.
On calls for the change of the December 7, polling date, Dr.
Afari-Gyan said date for the Presidential and Parliamentary
election was fixed in accordance with the constitutional
requirement.
“Any alteration in the date would create a constitutional
crisis as either the Presidential or the Parliamentary
election would be illegal,” the EC Chairman stated.
The Commission also accepted recommendation from the
political parties that at exactly 1700 hours on Election Day
all those in the queue should be given a tagged in addition
to the Security Officer standing behind the last person to
ensure that no one enters the queue later.
Mr David Adeenze Kangah, Deputy Chairman in Charge of
Finance and Administration and Mr Kwadwo Osarfo Kantanka,
Deputy Chairman in-Charge of Operations took turns to
educate the politicians on the mandate of the Commission,
its structure and administrative operations.
Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, Director of Elections and Mr Hubert
Akumiah, Director of Information and Technology Departments
showed the team around the promises of the Commission,
including the data processing and the operations room -
“Strong Room.”
GNA
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