The Electoral Commission (EC) wants the Police to expedite action on reported cases of electoral offences during the limited voter registration exercise last month. Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, EC Chairman, expressed concern about operational delays by the Police Administration to prosecute the offenders saying, “we must act swiftly to send strong signal to people who engage in double or minor registration." The EC Chairman stated this during a day’s working interaction with Greater Accra and Volta Regional Inter-Party Advisory Committee (RIPAC) members in Accra, which seeks to expose the officials to EC’s operations. The political party representatives and media personnel were briefed on the preparations towards Election 2008 to create a stakeholder confidence in the integrity of the electoral process. Dr Afari-Gyan also condemned politically motivated electoral and registration violence during the exercise and urged the political parties to adhere to the tenets of multi-party democracy. The Chairman said the EC, in collaboration with the security agencies had identified electoral flashpoints across the country especially, Tamale, Techiman, Pru, Odododiodoo, Bekwai and Suhum and would adopt the appropriate measures to ensure the safety of personnel and electoral materials for smooth process before, during and after the election. He called for closer collaboration with the political parties and tasked them to desist from jumping to the press at the least opportunity saying, “our doors are open for consultation”. On the role of electoral officials, Dr Afari-Gyan explained that only accredited officials of the EC were mandated to handle electoral materials. “The Regional, District and Municipal Chief Executives, Minister of States have no mandate at the electoral centres. Our officials are not subject to them during election.” The RIPAC members were also educated on structure of the Commission, operations at the Election and Information Technology Department, and other administrative work of the Commission. Dr Afari-Gyan supported by Mr David Adeenze-Kangah, Deputy Chairman in Charge of Administration and Finance; Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, Director of Elections and Mr Hubert Akumiah, IT Director, took turn to answer concerns of the political party representatives. The tour organised by the EC in collaboration with KAB Governance Consult and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung was used to provide responses to certain issues raised during the RIPAC meetings across the country. It also offered the members the opportunity to learn at first hand all about the operations room (Strong Room), the Information Technology (IT) Department and setup of the Commission. RIPAC members from the Brong Ahafo and Upper West regions would tour the premises on (Monday, September 8) and Ashanti and Western regions (Wednesday, September 10). The rest are Central and Eastern regions (Friday, September 12), and Northern and Upper East regions (Thursday September 18). Representatives from various political parties including, the New Patriotic Party, National Democratic Congress, People’s National Convention, Convention People’s Party and Democratic Freedom Party were present. The rest were the EGLE Party, New Vision Party, Democratic People’s Party and Ghana National Party. Source: GNA