Bolgatanga,
Nov 18,
Ghanadot/GNA
- The
Upper
East
Regional
Chairman
of the
Ghana
Journalists
Association
(GJA),
Mr.
Mohammed
Nurudeen
Issahaq,
has
added
his
voice to
the call
on
political
parties
to go
about
their
campaigns
with
decorum
to
ensure
peaceful
electioneering
processes.
He urged
the
parties
to
especially
take the
education
of their
polling
station
agents
seriously
and that
it was
the
moral
duty of
all the
political
parties
to
ensure a
peaceful
election.
Mr.
Issahaq
made the
call at
a public
forum
organized
by the
Upper
East
Region
office
of the
Electoral
Commission
(EC) for
parliamentary
candidates
in the
region's
13
constituencies.
It was
dubbed:
"Safeguarding
the
Integrity
of the
Ballot"
and
funded
by the
Canadian
International
Development
Agency (CIDA)
and KAB
Governance
Consult.
Mr.
Issahaq,
who
chaired
the
function,
reminded
the
candidates
that
they
were
vying
for the
position
to serve
and help
build
Ghana.
He urged
the
candidates
to be
guided
by the
ideals
of
nation
building,
adding,
"Ghana
will not
end on
December
7 but
the
election
would."
A
Director
of
Training
at the
headquarters
of the
EC, Mr.
Charles
Osei
Addei
who took
the
participants
through
the
'dos'
and
'don'ts'
of
elections,
especially
on the
polling
day,
said the
Commission
had
designed
a
programme
to train
polling
station
agents.
Mr.
Addei
said
candidates
should
select
polling
agents
who had
minimum
educational
qualification
and
could
easily
discern
between
issues
with a
good
sense of
judgment.
"Polling
station
agents
should
avoid
drinking
on the
election
day and
should
be
resident
in the
locality
to be
able to
challenge
voters
who they
deem not
qualified
to
vote."
He
reminded
the
candidates
that by
law,
they
could
appoint
one
person
to
represent
their
interests
at the
polling
station.
They may
however
have one
additional
agent
who may
only
relieve
the
agent on
duty
following
exhaustion,
distrust
or any
other
reason
known to
the
candidate.
Mr Adei
urged
the
candidates
to
insist
on
copies
of the
statement
of polls
form
from
their
agents,
explaining
that the
form
captures
the
results,
and
other
issues
that
might
have
surfaced
at the
polling
station
on
election
day.
He
lauded
the
cordial
relationship
between
political
parties,
especially
the
parliamentary
candidates
in the
region,
and said
the
Upper
East
Region
has
painted
a true
picture
about
democracy
and
urged
them to
continue
with the
relationship
throughout
the
electioneering
period.
The
Regional
Director
of the
EC,
Alhaji
Adam
Iddrisu,
expressed
his
gratitude
to the
parties
in the
region
for
cooperating
with the
EC in
the
region
and
pledged
that his
outfit
would do
its best
to
ensure
free,
fair and
transparent
election.
GNA
