The Electoral Commission (EC) has assured political parties and all stakeholders that it will provide sufficient time for those seeking to contest the 2024 presidential elections.
According to the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations at EC, Samuel Tettey, the move is to prevent the disqualification of any aspirant due to time constraints, as happened in 2020 when five presidential aspirants were disqualified.
Mr Tettey disclosed this during the National Peace Council’s stakeholder forum to promote peaceful 2024 elections.
“We are extending the days of nomination so that if there are certain challenges on the nomination forms of a particular candidate we would be able to resolve that before we put them on the ballot papers,” he said.
The deputy commissioner further noted that the EC has procured about 90% of the election-related materials needed for the 2024 elections. The only remaining task is printing the ballot papers, which he said will be done after receiving the nominations.
Mr Tettey stressed that to ensure a free and fair election, all stages of the Commission’s processes must be observed.
“The processes are so transparent and at every stage of the process if you have a challenge there is an appropriate end you can put it through.”
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In March 2024, the EC announced that it would receive nominations for candidates for this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections from September 9 to 13, a major countdown to the climax of the political season.
This will be followed by the balloting for positions on the presidential ballot paper on September 23, 2024, and the parliamentary balloting on September 24, 2024.
Furthermore, if everything goes according to plan, the EC expects to declare the results of the 2024 presidential polls within three days of the voting exercise.
The final voter register is expected to be submitted to the political parties between August 30 and September 5, 2024.