The Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) of the Electoral Commission has agreed that future polls in Ghana close at 3 pm instead of 5 pm.

This was agreed at the Election 2020 IPAC assessment workshop held on 18th and 19th May 2021.

A couple of weeks earlier, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) recommended in a post-election review communiqué that the EC “should revisit the proposal to move the time for close of polls from 5 pm to 4 pm to allow for early counting of ballots and some collation of results to be done under natural light”.

Other measures agreed upon are:

1. Institute all-year-round Voter Registration system where citizens who turn 18, or persons who have not previously registered, may visit any EC District office with their Ghana Card or Passport and register as voters.

2. Introducing all-year-round Voter Exhibition exercise through the use of technology (SMS Short Code) as well as have periodic physical verification at Exhibition Centres.

3. Build further efficiency into the collation processes by focusing on data entry only at the Constituency Collation Centre, (CCC) which is the entry point. The captured data at the CCC will be made available to all stakeholders at the Regional and National levels from which regional and national reports will be generated.

The IPAC workshop was meant to assess the processes leading to the 2020 general elections and the election itself.

Meanwhile, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not participate in the workshop.