“2019 will be a challenging year for the commission as there will be two referendums with regards to the creation of the new regions and the election of Metropolitan Municipal District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) which will be very critical for us,” she cautioned.
Mrs Osei observed that most of the election process took place at the district level which is very critical for staff at that level to be well resourced and knowledgeable to discharge their duties diligently.
She was addressing a-three-week training workshop underway in Koforidua in the Eastern Region, to build the capacities of newly recruited staff of the EC in the southern sector, on elections administration and conducting peaceful elections.
Over 40 participants who have been recruited as district election officers were drawn from the Eastern, Western, Central, Volta and the Greater Accra regions would be taken through election processes as majority formula, proportional representation, boundaries identification and generation of polling station codes among others.
The training was in accordance with global election administration and management as well as the Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) guidelines.
Mrs Osei indicated that the district assembly elections would also be held in 2019 and called for a strong and competent election staff who would handle the elections at the district level with utmost professionalism and integrity.
“In order to ensure the integrity of elections in Ghana, the EC mandated with that responsibility had always instituted such training programmes to ensure its entire staff performed their duties with ultimate professionalism and knowledge of the election rules and practices,” she stressed.
The Eastern Regional Director of the EC, Mrs Faith Amedzake, urged the participants to take the lessons seriously to facilitate their conducts on election managements at the district levels.