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Only media personnel accredited by the National Media Commission (NMC) will be allowed to take part in the Special Voting for "special voters".
 
This is contained in the Public Elections Regulations, 2016 which was laid before Parliament yesterday.

The regulations which, after 21 sitting days, would mature to be used for the 2016 elections, defines a special voter as 

(a) a security officer

(b) an election officer; or 

( c) a media person accredited by the National Media Commission.

The special voting is scheduled to be held a day before the elections.

With this provision in the new law, any journalist not recognised by the NMC would not be allowed to vote on that day.

Information available to the Daily Graphic points to the fact that journalists initially were not eligible to vote on the said day until Thursday evening when the decision was revised.

Background

Journalists and other security personnel in Ghana were given the opportunity to exercise their franchise a few days before elections in view of their busy schedules in previous elections except the 2012 elections.

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei, stated early this year that journalists in the country would take part in the special voting exercise ahead of the 2016 general election.

She said journalists were not put on the special voting list in 2012 because it was not captured in the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 75 which gives election a legal backing.

The former Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Djan, on one occasion explained that the biometric system posed a challenge since each journalist had registered at a different polling centre and allowing them to participate in the special election would mean creating a new polling centre for them.