Atik Mohammed Backs Electoral Commission's New Proposals

Former General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC), Atik Mohammed, has applauded the Electoral Commission (EC) over their new proposals to streamline Ghana's electoral system.

The EC has proposed to do away with the system of periodic nationwide registration exercises and institute an all-round system where citizens who turn 18 or persons who have not previously registered may visit any district office with their Ghana Card or passport and register as voters.  

This is aimed at reducing the cost of elections.

The Commission also proposed to build efficient collation process by focusing on data entry only at the Constituency Collation Centre.

They also have proposed to change the voting time by ensuring the election end at 3pm instead of 5pm.

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Atik Mohammed embraced the EC proposals believing it will enhance the progress of Ghana's elections.

He noted that, assessing the EC's performance in the 2020 general elections, the Commission has proven to be effective.

Therefore, Atik was optimistic the EC knows better, so strongly believe that their, "recommendation is borne out of the fact that they have confidence in the systems they have set up to be able to take care of the voting process within this timeframe. Because if you recall what happened in the last elections, it was swift; so they've drawn some confidence in their system that we said it was very important for our election management that some people dissented to. They vindicated that decision by the output we saw in the election''.

''So, they have seen that, look, this is what we needed. Now, that infrastructure is there; we can effectively work with it. So, let's go a step further and improve our collation management regime, and we can only do that if the voting time closes a little early for us to have ample time for the collation, and I think it's a fantastic idea or suggestion if you ask me. But of course, it's not an imposition, they say we should all have a discussion on it. I agree and I love that idea," he added.

Atik Mohammed backed the EC saying, "I applaud them for the constant and consistent initiatives they're bringing to ensure they improve on our election management regime. I am very excited".