Polls in Ghana to close at 3PM after stakeholders accept new proposal

A two-day forum was held and attended by stakeholders of various political groups. This forum was held by the Electoral Commission (EC) to examine last year’s elections. They agreed that going forward, voting in Ghana’s election should close at 3PM.
In a communique issued after the meeting, the stakeholders agreed among other things that “The polls should end at 3PM, instead of at 5:PM.”

The EC’s chair, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa had earlier proposed for the stipulated time for the closure of polls to be moved forward from 5pm to 3pm in future elections.
She said the proposal when implemented would ensure adequate time provision for the counting, and collation of ballot papers.

She revealed the initiative was to take effect in the 2020 general elections but was put on hold as a result of COVID-19.

“We propose closing the polls at 3pm rather than 5pm. In 2019, we announced our decision to close the polls at 3pm rather than 5pm, in the 2020 Elections. Nonetheless, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stringent, and necessarily time-consuming safety protocols we instituted at our polling stations, we were compelled to put this proposal on hold.
Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Peter Boamah Otokunor whose party boycotted the event had asked Ghanaians to reject the proposal.

He said the time to close polls in Ghana’s elections since 1992 has not been an issue for the political parties.
Mr Otokunor said there are other pressing reforms that the EC must embark on, not this one.
Asked for his reaction on this proposal, Mr Otokunor said “Unfortunately, I will not be able to contribute to that because we (NDC) are working on key reforms.
But on the face of it, it beats my imagination that this is a worry for the electoral commission. There are major challenges with our electoral systems and closing polls early is not something that we should be worrying ourselves about.”

“If you look at the system that we have been running from 1992, early poll closing has not been a challenge. The results coming and the time as they are declared has not been in contention in any of our elections. So I think that this is something that should be ignored.
“There are key issues and we are going to engage the public on some of the major things that require attention,” he told Accra-based Joy FM.