The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana is advocating for persons who took pictures of their ballot papers after voting for their preferred candidates in Tuesday’s Special Voting exercise, otherwise known as Early Voting, to be jailed.
The Commission wants offenders of such crime to be given custodial sentence to serve as deterrent to others who will be voting on December 7th.
The comments of the election management body follows the arrest of two at the Kpeshie Police Headquarters in Nungua in the Greater Accra Region.
According to media reports, the duo caught the attention of some agents after they kept long in the voting booth. The agents are said to have alerted the Police who after going through their smartphones arrested them for the “disclosure of votes”.
The two are currently assisting the Police with investigations into the matter.
The Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Dr. Serebuor Quaicoe, who shared the position of the Commission on the matter with the public said it is a crime for anyone to take photograph of his or her vote, stressing that anyone found to have been engaged in that act must be prosecuted.
He said so far, three persons have been arrested for committing such a crime.
“The law is specific that the choice of balloting should be in secrecy so the moment you take a snapshot of the thumbprint or ballot paper you have breached the law. I know that so far three people have been arrested and it’s my wish those people are given custodial sentences before 7th December to serve as a warning to others. We should be people who respect the laws of the country.”
He added “Why would you take snapshots of your vote? What is the need for it and by so doing you are breaching the laws of the country and you must be sanctioned severely and with the swiftness that it demands to serve as a warning to others”.
