Asiedu Nketia backs Ghana polling station expansion.

 General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia has welcomed the Electoral Commission’s decision to increase the number of polling stations across the country from 26,000 to 35,000.

According to Mr. Asiedu–Nketia, this move will help solve the problem of creating additional desk on election day to deal with the long queues.

“This attempt to create more polling stations is to ensure that no single polling station will have more than 800 voters according to the EC, and that will help in facilitating the process so that the voting can be conducted in a single day; it’s a good thing,’’ he stated.

He said the Electoral Commission discussed and justified their decision to increase the number of polling stations with political parties at a recent meeting with the political parties.

The NDC General Secretary also said for voting to be completed on Election Day, then “I guess we have no option than to go for a facility that will help us to conduct the election in a single day of 10 hours and declare the results’’.

On his part, the former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mac Manu, said the Electoral Commission should provide specific locations or polling stations that will be affected by the increase of polling stations across the country.

"The EC should not give a blanket statement, they should state specific polling stations which have the huge numbers; where polling station numbers are exceedingly high; voters become agitated and may not vote at all, they must state which specific polling station has huge numbers and which they want to cut down the numbers…’’

According to him, the creation of additional polling stations will have financial and human resource implications for the political parties.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has stated that it will be increasing the number of polling stations across the country from 26,000 to 35,000.

This is to reduce the voter population at some polling stations, as well as reduce the pressure on the Biometric Verification Device (BVD), to enable it function efficiently.

 Source: Citifm