The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to maintain the 5 pm end of polls schedule during the 2024 elections.
He made this statement in parliament while reacting to the proposal by the Electoral Commission while debating the 2024 budget for the commission.
According to the majority leader, even though elections start at 8:00 am, the materials needed for him to cast his vote was brought at 9:20 am which indicates that 2hours was wasted giving voters limited time to vote.
“The attempt to reduce voting time from 5 pm to 3 pm again we should interrogate it. I believe it is too early for the EC to do it. [On Tuesday] when I went to vote, the materials had not been assembled yet even though I got there at 8:15, I had to stay until 9:20 to start voting, already two hours wasted”, he said.
He emphasized that with his experience during the District Level Elections, voters would lose about 4 hours, thus, urged the commission to maintain 5 pm.
“We didn’t have to bring the conclusion from 5 pm to 3 pm. Then the voters would have lost about four hours…So let’s all stick to the 5 pm of voting,” he said.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa disclosed that measures are being put in place to create more polling stations ahead of the 2024 election to reduce the number of voters per polling station to 500.
According to her, this move by the EC will help reduce overcrowding at various polling stations, however, she hinted that the closing time of the election might change from 5:00 pm to 3:00 pm during the 2024 general election.
