Dr Serebour Quaicoe, director of elections at the Electoral Commission, is suggesting that people who snatch ballot boxes during elections be given a lifetime ban from voting in the country.
Speaking in an interview on Newsfile on Joy FM over the weekend, following the sentencing of Christian Nukpeta over his conduct in Sene West during the just-ended elections, Dr Quaicoe said such punishment will serve as a deterrent to other ballot-box snatchers.
“I would have wished that he is given a two-year sentence, the 6,000 [cedis] and the banning. Even the banning should have been for life even though it is not in the law.
Why vote?
“Because if you don’t want people’s vote to be counted, then why should you be voting? So I would have wished that he is given the full two years, the GHC6,000 and banned for life so that he will not go closer to elections any more.”
He gave his assurance that the culprit cannot manoeuvre his way to register or vote in an election in Ghana so long as the current voters’ register is in use.
“The name is already in the register, so it can be quarantined, and once it is quarantined, we have the biometric. So, any time he tries to register, the name will pop up.
“So as long as this register exists, once we quarantine him, he cannot register; he cannot vote.”
Precedent
Christian Nukpeta, the man who snatched a ballot box in Sene West in the Bono East Region on election day, was convicted by a court over the weekend to spend three months in jail.
The 39-year-old has also been banned for five years from registering and voting in any election in Ghana.
In addition to the custodial sentence and ban, he is expected to pay a fine of GHC3,600. In default, he will spend an additional six months in jail. The sentence was handed over to him by Justice Alexander Graham on Friday 1 December 2020.
Nukpeta, a resident of Tato Bator, pleaded guilty to the charges, telling the court that he did not know what influenced him.
The EC cannot declare the results of the parliamentary elections in Ghana until the court has determined the Sene West case before it. The outstanding seat was contested by three candidates in the election on Monday.
They are the incumbent, Kwame Ampofo Twumasi of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Kumah Mackay of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Caesar Fomekah of the National Democratic Party (NDP).
Fred Dzakpata
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