Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the former Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC), has stated that no one is too big to serve as a polling agent for their party on election day.
He explained that political parties need to hire polling agents who know how the electoral system works and can use the right method to object when they think something isn’t working right.
Dr. Afari-Gyan stated that the work of a polling agent is not fighting but rather brainwork at a lecture he gave on February 8 at the Rotary Club of Accra West.
He stated, “The election results are not automatically invalidated by refusing to sign the pink sheet, as we refer to it in Ghana.”
“Some candidates hold the belief that the results are invalid if the agents do not sign. We are occasionally informed that the candidates even tell the party, “If I lose very badly, don’t sign it,” in the belief that doing so will invalidate the ballot. No, refusing to sign the pink sheet does not render the election results null and void.
“What is written in the law? If you refuse to sign, you must provide written reasons at the polling place, and the electoral commission will later investigate the reasons you provided, according to the law. EC will Ignore it if you haven’t written anything like that.
“As a result, it is essential to keep in mind that acting as an agent at the polling place is brainwork; it is not a brawl, it is not a fight, and you are not going to fight at the polling place. It is brainwork; the individual must comprehend the situation to raise these issues.
Given the significance of pink sheets, “I have said many times that I believe nobody is too big to serve his or her party as an agent on election day,”
