The Electoral Commission has disapproved of plans by the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for voting at the upcoming congress to be conducted on regional basis.
There are reports the NDC may be introducing ten ballot boxes for delegates from each region to vote simultaneously at the Sunyani Congress.
But the campaign team of the Former First Lady have kicked against the move and have since petitioned the party General Secretary.
They had even threatened to resort to the Courts to halt the process, if the party goes ahead with the intended plan.
According to them, �any votes undertaken regionally would be unacceptable for the simple reason that it would be unfair for any candidate to know which region voted for him or her. This would result in the intimidation of the Regions that would be concerned about the repercussions of voting for a particular candidate. These actions are contrary to democracy and will not foster national unity. �Voting should not be carried out regionally; ballot boxes should not be identified by Region.
NDC General Secretary, Mr. Asiedu Nketia, had explained that the process is not unconstitutional indicating that the party could go ahead with it.
But in an interview with Citi News on Monday July 4, the Acting Public Affairs Director of the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu-Parry, said the Commission in agreement with representatives from the camps of the two contenders, have resolved to ignore that proposal.
�Representatives of the two groups came to meet the elections department today (July 4), and what they have agreed on is that, there will be a number of voting centres all at the same stadium. But two regions will vote at each one of these centres. So at the end of the day, it will not be clear which region voted in a particular way. So two regions will be assigned to a centre each, where both regions will be voting into the same box and when that box if full, it will be replaced with a new one" he explained.
According to Mr. Owusu Parry, it has been agreed that Ashanti Region will not be paired with any other region because it has the largest number of delegates.
He said balloting for positions and ballot sheets for the election have already been catered for.
�They have finally agreed that the Electoral Commission should be the one that should print the ballot papers. They had already balloted for positions on the ballot paper and I am told that the President is the first on the ballot paper and the Former First Lady will be the second on the paper�.
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