The Electoral Commission (EC) says the results of the December 28 presidential run-off will be released within 48 hours after voting. It also says the results will not be declared in the night. A member of the EC, Mrs Pauline Adobea Dadzawa, said since the run-off was only between two candidates, the process was not likely to take as much time as the December 7 elections, which also included parliamentary results. In the December 7 elections, the EC, as it had promised, declared the final results within 72 hours. Mrs Dadzawa, who is in charge of elections in the Ashanti Region, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that "it is not in, the interest of the commission to delay the results of elections", noting that delays usually brought a feeling of apprehension and uneasiness to the people. "And those of us in the commission also feel the pressure, in the event of a delay in announcing results," she added. Mrs Dadzawa indicated that the EC would not wait for the results from all the constituencies to come in before announcing the results. If it becomes clear that the delayed results from the constituencies will not have any effect on the final results, we shall go ahead to declare the results," she added. On voter turnout in the December 7 elections, the EC member said it was not one of the best and expressed the hope that the electorate would turn out in their numbers on December 28 to vote for their preferred candidates. Meanwhile, the EC has come up with new directives on how seals will be put on ballot boxes for the run-off. A statement signed by Mrs Dadzawa and issued by the EC in Kumasi said even though the commission would continue to give opportunity to the political parties to put their seals on the ballot boxes, the exercise should be carried out before voting starts at 7 a.m. on December 28. It pointed out that seals would no longer be applied when voting started, explaining that the directive was to avoid interruptions and fidgeting with ballot boxes. The statement, therefore, called on the political parties, in this case the NDC and the NPP, to ensure maximum compliance. Source: Daily Graphic