Pollster and Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch, Ben Epson, argues that the political party with some 50,000 polling agents is likely to win the 2024 general election.
He reiterated the now well accepted saying that “political parties win elections at the polling station.”
Mr Ephson, who is currently writing his 7th book on Ghanaian elections, noted that the two big political parties must be able to train 45,000 polling agents each and have some 5,000 extra.
According to him, there are about 40,000 polling stations across the country and he will be surprised if the two parties say they cannot train between 45,000 and 50,000 polling agents and have some as backup.
Speaking in an interview on Happy FM, Mr Ephson said, “each political party needs to have between 45,000 and 50,000 polling agents if they want to win the election. This way they can manage the voting books for the party and ensure no irregularities occur.”
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He noted that in an electoral area with 10,000 registered voters, with only 6,000 voters turning out to vote, one of the parties can manipulate the system and cast some 3,000 votes out of the 4,000 persons who failed to vote in their favour.
“In a polling station where they have 10,000 voters and 6,000 come and vote, that means some 4,000 will not have voted. So if a party’s polling agent takes money and leaves and the opposition adds 3,000 people to come and vote, it will be to your detriment,” he stated.
The pollster added that if such a scheme is replicated across 1,000 polling stations, the said party will have some 3,000,000 illegal votes and will win the election.
To him, polling agents the parties train must be vigilant and committed: “They need to be around until the counting of votes ends if any of the parties want to win the election fairly.”