IMANI & OccupyGhana's 19 Point Communique On Electoral Reforms

Pressure group OccupyGhana has called on the Electoral Commission to make the Voters Register available at least one year before the 2016 General elections. The group also wants the EC to "discontinue the practice of basing constituency delimitation on the President�s creation of new districts and must challenge as unconstitutional any statute or regulation requiring the Commission to do so." In a 19 point Communique issued by OccupyGhana a couple of days after it held a public forum in conjunction with IMANI Ghana on the need for election reforms in Ghana, they asked the EC "to take immediate steps to implement the Representation of People�s Amendment Act, 2006, to allow foreign Ghanaian residents to vote." Read a copy of the Communique below. Further to the deliberations of participants at the public forum organized on the above theme under the auspices of OccupyGhana and IMANI Ghana, we the Organisers and the Participants, have reached consensus that there is the need to protect our democracy by strengthening the integrity of our electoral process and enhancing the credibility of our elections and election results. The Electoral Commission, speaking through its designated representative at the forum, was unable to furnish participants with the needed information about the commission�s preparedness to enable us to ascertain the status of the proposed electoral reforms. Accordingly, we the participants have concluded that there is the dire need for the Electoral Commission to take immediate and firm measures to implement the recommendations of the Supreme Court as well as those already proposed by the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), IEA-GPPP. In addition to these recommendations from the Supreme Court and IPAC, the Electoral Commission, Government, and all Ghanaians, must consider the following specific actions: RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION: 1. The Electoral Commission must prepare the Voters Register and make it available for public scrutiny at least one year before the election date. 2. Electoral Commission must publish the identities and qualifications of proposed presiding officers so that the public may have an opportunity to challenge their suitability. In addition, The Electoral Commission must liaise with the Ministry of Education to employ teachers as presiding officers on Election Day. 3. The Electoral Commission must change the Electoral Calendar to make way for the conduct of the General Elections in October so as to allow sufficient time for any petitions arising from the elections to be speedily resolved before a President-elect is sworn in. 4. The Electoral Commission must come out with the Electoral Time Table two years ahead of time and must strictly comply with it. 5. The Electoral Commission must be open and transparent about its administrative procedures and policymaking and decision-making process. 6. The Electoral Commission must publish the criteria, methodology and process by which it undertakes constituency delimitation and hold public hearings and consultations as part of the process of constituency delimitation. 7. The Electoral Commission must aim, in its constituency delimitation exercise, to reduce the disparities in the population between constituencies, in order to ensure fair and equitable legislative representation of communities in different constituencies. 8. The Election Commission must discontinue the practice of basing constituency delimitation on the President�s creation of new districts and must challenge as unconstitutional any statute or regulation requiring the Commission to do so. 9. The Electoral Commission must take immediate steps to implement the Representation of People�s Amendment Act, 2006, to allow foreign Ghanaian residents to vote.