Don't accept food from parties on election day - Police officers warned

Security personnel have been asked not to accept any gift, especially food or drink, from anybody or political party as they man the polling station on election day.

The Minister of the Interior, Prosper Douglas Bani, gave the directive in an interview with The Ghanaian Times yesterday.

He said per the mandate of the security agencies, they should remain neutral in the discharge of their duties, and that the tendency to accept any parcel or gift from any of the parties or individual might not auger well and could dent their reputation.

In any case, he said, the personnel would be given rationing to take care of their meal on that day.

The Minister, however, assured of the security agencies’ determination to discharge their duties diligently before, during and after the elections.

Elections, he said, were contests and did not warrant people taking the law into their own hands to foment trouble, or the use of vigilante groups.

He said the security agencies were poised to perform the task successfully before, during and after the elections.

On his part, the Director-General in charge of Operations of the Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Christian Tetteh Yohuno, said personnel would be deployed at all the polling centres very early and remain until the ballots were counted.

He urged the public to cooperate with the personnel as they discharged their duties, and especially as they offered assistance to the aged, the visually impaired and the sick who would come to the centres to cast their vote.

“Such persons, may require some form of assistance to exercise their franchise,” he noted.

So far, Mr Yohonu said preparations at the level of the security had been smooth, and assured of discharging their mandate successfully.

He commended Ghanaians and the political parties, saying the campaign had so far been smooth without any rancour, compared to the previous elections where tempers were high,

The Operations Commander said looking at the level of comportment, a time would come that police presence would not be needed for people to cast their vote.

Surprisingly, he said, even with a few weeks to the elections, Ghanaians had exhibited maturity that ‘indeed they have come of age as far as elections are concerned, with this election being the seventh”.

Mr Yohonu also commended the media for taking active interest in the forthcoming elections and not tolerating hate speech on their platforms and in the newspapers.

He appealed to the electorate to go home after casting their vote and return when counting was to be done.