The Electoral Commission (EC) during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held on Friday, November 29, provided updates on the upcoming December 7 general election preparations.

The discussions focused on measures to ensure a transparent, credible, and efficient electoral process, with particular attention on collation processes and addressing discrepancies in ballot papers.

The EC announced that it has introduced collation officers at the constituency and regional levels to enhance the integrity of the collation process.

These officers, appointed under Regulation 2(3)(b) of C.I. 127, will work independently alongside Returning Officers to perform electronic collation of polling station results for both presidential and parliamentary elections.

The recruitment process for these officers was rigorous, involving public advertisements, interviews conducted by a panel including officials from the EC and the Ghana Statistical Service, and further training to prepare them for election day tasks.

"The reason why the Commission engaged the collation officers is to enhance the integrity of the collation. Their main function is to do electronic collation of the polling station results for both the presidential and parliamentary elections in an Excel format provided by the Commission.

"They are going to work side-by-side with our returning officers but independently. The returning officers will do the manual collation and compare it with that of the Excel collation by the collation officers. Collation at the regional level will take place at the regional offices of the Commission. The National collation will take place in Accra at a location to be communicated to the parties and agents of presidential candidates very soon."

The EC announced that political parties and presidential candidates will receive accreditation for two agents at both constituency and regional collation centres. Additionally, domestic and international observers will also be accredited to monitor activities at these collation centres.

The Commission further stated that the media will be accredited to cover the collation process at the constituency, regional, and national levels.

"In terms of the number of media houses to be given accreditation per collation centre, the Commission is still in discussions with the GJA and GIBA. What is certain is that the media will be allowed to cover the collation process at all levels."

The EC addressed concerns about shortfalls and discrepancies in some ballot papers reported in the Volta and Bono regions. These issues were identified during the Commission's standard verification procedures conducted in collaboration with political party representatives.

According to the EC, these checks are integral to its accountability mechanisms, ensuring that all ballot papers match the statistics provided to printers and political parties. The process allows for any discrepancies to be corrected before election day.

The EC stated that these measures reflected its dedication to maintaining the integrity of the electoral process.

The EC assured stakeholders of its readiness to conduct free, fair, and transparent elections, and said it is open to collaborating with political parties, candidates, and other observers throughout the process.