[ 2016-11-11 ]

Dec 7 Elections: Only 871 journalists to take part in Special Voting
Only 871 journalists across the country will be
allowed to partake in the Special Voting by the
Electoral Commission (EC) scheduled to take place
on Thursday, December 1.

The Electoral Commission (EC) says these 871
journalists applied through the Ghana Journalists
Association (GJA), Ghana Independent Broadcasters
Association (GIBA), the National media Commission
(NMC) and the EC itself.

The Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Kofi
Dzakpasu, told Onua FM’s Ghana Dadwene that
these 871 journalists are part of the total 65,001
people, who are applied to vote on Special Voting
day. CI 91 mandates “election officials, media
and security officials to undertake the special
voting”, Mr. Dzakpasu told the host, Kwame
Karikari, on Thursday.

Giving the breakdown of the 65, 001 people who
will partake in the special voting, Mr. Dzakpasu
said “40,563 EC officials, 871 media personnel
and 23,567 security officials applied to vote”.


He added that “only 871 media applied through
EC, GIBA and National Media Commission in all the
28,992 polling stations across the country”. Mr.
Dzakpasu explained that “the law does not allow
civil society organizations to vote on the special
day” and as such they did not apply to undertake
the special voting. On early voting, which took
place in the US elections, the EC Communication
Head said “no early voting.

We have not reached the America stage, so ours is
special voting”. The General Secretary of the
Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), David Agbenu,
when contacted said after the GJA had information
from the EC about the special voting, they sent a
circular to all the media houses to adhere to the
directives but only few media houses such as the
Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, Ghana News Agency,
and few other private newspapers responded. He
explained that the Ghana Independent Broadcasters
Association (GIBA) told them they would work on
the electronics media in the country so the GJA
concentrated much on the print media.

Source - 3news.com

... go Back