Last week Electoral Commission announced to the electorates and general public on the guidelines to be followed during elections especially when voting president and members of parliament on 14th January 2021.
Among the guidelines, Electoral Commission gave out by then, includes, prohibiting voters from going with their phones at polling stations, not taking photos even having selfies and journalists were among the group that was affected.
However, after releasing such strange restrictions, different electoral stakeholders including; political parties, independent candidates, human Rights activitists, electorates and media came out to disagree with the electoral commission move.
Forum for Democratic Change, a party that fronted Patrick Oboi Amuriat as their presidential candidate officially wrote to Electoral Commission asking them the law they bend on to issue out such stringent guidelines that hide transparency and fairness in the process.
In a would be their (EC) reply, through a number of threads on their twitter handle, today Electoral Commission eased on own set restrictions and allowed voters, accredited journalists to go with their phones, cameras on polling stations but not to take photos while in the Electoral Commission condoned-off areas.
“The Electoral Commission has noted the concerns expressed by various stakeholders over the Commission’s restriction on use of cameras and other recording devices inside polling stations on polling day.” EC’s threads on twitter started.
“Media personnel, who have been accredited to cover the elections, will be permitted to access polling stations and may take photographs of the voting process, but outside the cordoned-off area in a manner that protects the privacy of voters and the secrecy of the ballot.” They continued.
“While phones are not prohibited at polling stations, they must not be used for recording purposes or taking photographs inside the polling stations (the cordoned-off area);.
Given the nature of our polling booth, which is an open basin, the presence of cameras in side polling stations may jeopardise the secrecy of the ballot, due to uncontrolled use of cameras and other recording devices;
Please note that the secrecy of the ballot is aimed at ensuring that a vote is anonymous and cannot be traced back to the person who cast it. A secret ballot is, therefore, fundamental in achieving peaceful, free and fair elections;
The same commission before said that votes shall be counted at the district tally centres, but now they changed and said the votes shall be counted openly from the polling stations where they have been cast from and candidates’ agents are free to take photos, and recording of the results.
“The counting of votes cast at each polling station will be conducted openly, and a voter or candidate’s agent may take photographs or recordings of the counting process and/or take a photograph or record the issued Declaration of Results Form.”