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CDD, CODEO initiate programmes to reduce rejected ballots 

A study conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has revealed that more than twice the national average of rejected ballots in the 2012 election came from northern Ghana.

Figures published by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the presidential election indicated that a total of 251,720 ballots cast were rejected outright out of 11,246,982 votes put into the ballot boxes in the 2012 election.

To address the issue of rejected ballots, CDD-Ghana, in collaboration with Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), has started a training programme in Tamale  aimed at reducing rejected ballots in the country.

The training programme is dubbed: Civic Voter Education (CVE).

 

Training

Speaking at the CVE training workshop in Tamale last Monday for 50 civic voter educators, the Northern Regional Programmes Manager of CDD, Mr Paul Osei Kuffour, said more than twice of the national average of rejected ballots in the 2012 election came from the three regions in the north.  

That, he said, was unacceptable and needed to be checked early in order for it not to happen again in this year’s election.

He said the training of the civic voter educators drawn from the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions would help to deepen citizens’ knowledge and awareness of the electoral process and environment through district level civic voter education.

He said the civic voter educators would educate the electorate on the electoral processes in order to help reduce rejected ballots and improve the quality of this year’s election in their respective areas.

For his part, a senior programmes officer at the CDD, Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah, said the training of the civic voter educators was to complement the efforts of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the Electoral Commission (EC) to educate the electorate on the right voting process.

He said the training would contribute to the smooth and effective implementation of electoral reforms and improved administration of the 2016 election.

He added that CODEO would deploy 7,000 observers across the country to monitor this year’s election.

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