Connect with us

Hot!

Challenges faced during DLEs unfortunate, EC must take responsibility – CODEO

Published

on

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has described as unfortunate, challenges that bedevilled the District Level Elections held nationwide on Tuesday, December 19.

CODEO blamed the Electoral Commission (EC) for not living up to its task and urged it to do better.

Reports of non-functioning of the Biometric Verification Device (BVD) used for verification and delays in the distribution of voting items to some centres hampered the process in some areas.

In an interview with Citi News, the National Coordinator for CODEO, Albert Arhin said the Electoral Commission must take lessons from this process.

Advertisement

“I saw some places where, for example, if the candidate’s name is Arhin, they put maybe Kofi or Kwame there, which shouldn’t have been the case. That is putting somebody’s name under a different picture or something. These mistakes should have been corrected by sending people. If for example if you are printing for a particular region or a district, the district director should have been there with the team to be doing some of these corrections.”

“So that is managerial. Because we have been having some of these experiences we should have taken a cue and learnt our lessons so we don’t repeat these mistakes. But whether we like it or not the blame still lies on the doorstep of the EC because they are the ones running this show.”

The National Democratic Congress also stated that the EC must take responsibility for the turn of events in the elections.

Mustapha Gbande, Deputy Secretary of the NDC said “Election management is not cast in stone. It is about the experience, it is about consultation, it is about dealing with people who know the work better than you to help you build a solid, transparent, dependable, credible system that will give a free and fair election to the people of Ghana. These mistakes are avoidable.”

Advertisement

“Someone must take full responsibility beyond apologising. She has messed up an election system that we all saw clearly and cautioned her and she didn’t listen. When we were speaking she said the NDC is accusing her. And today we are at the same root and you are saying we should let go.”

Source: Citinewsroom.com

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Hot!

Pragyia rider gets 3 months prison term for biting Police Assistant

Published

on

Participants at the event

A 24-year-old tricycle (Pragyia) rider, has been jailed three months by the Nkawie Circuit Court in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region for biting a Community Police Assistant (CPA) at Nkawie.

Abdul Aziz pleaded guilty to the charge of negligently causing harm and was convicted on his own plea.

Police Inspector Kwaku Frimpong, prosecuting told the court presided by Mr Robert Addo that, complainants in the case were officers from the Nkawie Divisional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.

He said on September 3, at about 8:40am, the complainants led by Chief Inspector Abedi Larbi, were on their official patrol duty to ensure safety at Nkawie township and met the convict, who was in-charge of a Pragya tricycle with registration number M-25-A-3722.

Advertisement

He explained that, after a careful inspection, it was detected that the convict was without licence and other required documents, so Alhassan Seidu, the CPA, was instructed to lead him to the office for the next action.

On their way to the office, the convict took a different direction, so the CPA directed him to take the right route to the police station, but he disobeyed and attacked the CPA, resulting in a struggle between them.

In the process the convict bit the CPA on the chest, so he shouted for help and some nearby youth rushed to the scene and helped him to arrest the convict.

In his caution statement, he admitted the offence and after further investigations he was charged and brought before the court. –GNA

Advertisement

SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS

You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.

Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27

Continue Reading

Hot!

Place all 54,985 affected BECE candidates in schools and publish final outcome – NPP urges govt

Published

on

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.

The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.

In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.

The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.

Advertisement

It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.

“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.

The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.

It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.

Advertisement

The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.

It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.

The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.

The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.

Advertisement

It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.

By: Jacob Aggrey

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending