CODEO calls for harsher penalties for those who engage in electoral malpractice

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), has urged the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to ensure the prosecution of persons who are arrested for inciting violence in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.

The group is making this call on the back of the recent violent incidents that have ensued in some voter registration centres in some parts of the country including Kukuom in the Ahafo Region, Adugyama in the Ashanti Region, and Cape Coast in the Central Region.

According to the National Coordinator of CODEO, Albert Arhin, it is very important to hold people accountable for violent their conduct, as it will deter others from doing the same.

“The culprits, those who indulge in these election malpractices are to be punished. And the citizenry should see that these people are punished. The moment you just make a wishy-washy kind of arrest, then we don’t hear anything again, people will always want to do it again. So when we arrest them, let us prosecute them so that it serves as a deterrent to others.

“If we don’t punish, people will think that it is something that everybody can do and they will go on committing and committing and committing these daily mistakes,” he stated.