The Ghana Police Service has disclosed it is planning effective strategies to neutralise the flashpoints it has identified to ensure peace before, during, and after the December polls.
The 2016 election security task force chaired by the Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor, earlier disclosed that it had identified some 5,000 flashpoints in the country. The EC has also come out to say it has identified 81 flashpoints.
Speaking to Class News, Police Director of Public Affairs, Superintendent Cephas Arthur said: “The intelligence has already been activated and we need to confirm the status of the areas as to whether they are likely to live up to their billing or likely to live up to their tagging as flashpoints this time round or not. We’ll be picking pieces of intelligence for us to work with so that in any event, we will be able to forestall it. Then, of course, we are also going to ensure that the other strategies such as the deployment of personnel to the flashpoints are varied and other security measures like zoning areas with flashpoints into smaller areas and putting patrol teams in charge,” he stated.
For her part, chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei said the electoral body had linked up with security agencies to address the 81 flashpoints it had identified to ensure violence-free elections come December 7.
Speaking at a colloquium on peaceful elections in Ghana on Wednesday September 7, Mrs Osei said: “So far this year, we have done a lot of work with the security agencies and other state institutions to put in place measures to guarantee the security of the polls. This includes the formation of the election security task force with the Ghana Police Service at the national, regional, and district levels. … We will also be providing a list of polling stations to be used for the 2016 general elections to the security services so that they can also plan on how to man the polling stations. We will be giving the police our list of flashpoints. … We have worked hard to increase the number of polling stations to 29,000. This is to also reduce the number of voters in a polling station, avoid long queues, and avoid voting in polling centres extending into the night. We have discussed the voting modalities with the security agencies and we’ve started working on a process to ensure that all security personnel taking part in the elections can vote on December 1 so that they can be made available for election duties on December 7.”
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