The Electoral Commission (EC) begins the nationwide Special Voting exercise today.

This allows election officials, security personnel, and media practitioners to cast their ballots early ahead of the December 7 general election.

Initially planned for 328 centres, the exercise in the Western and Eastern Regions has been rescheduled to Thursday, December 5, 2024, due to a recall of ballots.

With 131,478 eligible voters representing 0.007% of the total voter population of 18.7 million, the polls will run from 7 am to 5 pm.

Read also: Special voting for Western and Eastern postponed to Thursday over ballot leakage incident

“We are ready to conduct transparent, credible, and peaceful elections,” assured EC Chairperson Jean Mensa told the press last Friday.

Mrs Jean Mensa clarified that security personnel and journalists who did not apply for Special Voting will not be able to vote on December 2 but can participate in the main election scheduled for December 7.

She emphasized that ballots cast during the Special Voting exercise will not be counted immediately. Instead, they will be tallied on December 7 at the Constituency Collation Centres and then added to the main election results.

Read also: EC orders recall and reprinting of Eastern and Western ballot papers due to leakage

At each Constituency Collation Centre, the Returning Officer will separately record these results on the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Results Collation Forms before merging them with the overall tally from all polling stations.

To ensure the security of the ballots, all boxes will be sealed and stored in secured rooms at police stations within each constituency.

The EC has instructed Presiding Officers not to count Special Voting ballots on the day they are cast.

Read also: NDC and PNC call for probe into ballot paper ‘leakage’ incident

Dr George Akuffo Dampare, Inspector-General of Police and chair of the National Elections Security Taskforce, reassured the public that robust security measures are in place to guarantee a peaceful and safe electoral process.

The general elections to elect a new president and 276 MPs will take place on Saturday, December 7, 2024.