The Electoral Commission (EC) has revealed that it contemplated changing the election date for the 2024 general election as early as 2020.
The clarification comes after Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensa, reportedly proposed that the Commission is contemplating a shift in the election date from December 7 to November 7.
She revealed this adjustment during a meeting with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) on Monday, January 22.
This development to many, aligns with with a recent proposition put forth by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which aimed to modify the election date based on religious considerations.
The church, referencing Saturday, December 7, 2024, as a day dedicated to divine worship, formally appealed to the Attorney-General’s office, urging support in sponsoring legislation to amend the election day.
However, the deputy chairperson of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare has stated that “Let me state very clearly that it had nothing to do with what the Adventist Church brought in the form of a petition.
According to him the intention to change the 2024 election date was considered in 2020 comes after certain political parties proposed a change in date with the reason being that “in the event there was a run-off, the EC will have exactly 21 days, and right after the 21 days, the next one week would be the inauguration”.
“This was something the Commission had thought about from 2020, but we did not have enough time to be able to put it into action in 2020. Yesterday [Monday], when we met at IPAC, we made it very clear to the parties that this was a proposal that came from the political parties themselves in 2015,” he said.
“The reason they gave at the time was that in the event there was a run-off, the EC will have exactly 21 days, and right after the 21 days, the next one week would be the inauguration.
“Apart from that too, we gave a reason that the time for the EC to work on organising the elections within three weeks will be very, very tight. Beyond that, the time for the inauguration you have a new government and an old government leaving office, the time will be too short,” he added.