Regional News of Monday, 23 May 2011

Source: Francis Owusu-Ansah, Space FM

Sunyani Polytechnic elects SRC executives

Sunyani Polytechnic has once again made a strong case for the possibility of the
country using the electronic voting system (E-Voting) in future general elections.

The Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Polytechnic on Friday used the
electronic voting system to elect executives for the SRC. Some 7000 students were
expected to cast their ballots electronically using 100 computers.
Representatives of all candidates monitored the voting patterns in a master control
room on a giant screen. The representatives were not allowed to communicate with
their candidates during voting.

The E-Voting system was initiated by Mr. Frimpong Kyeremeh, Mr. Kofi Nti, Eric
Gyamfi and Nana Kodom. It has successfully been used in five elections.
The E-Voting system eliminates all electoral fraud and gives the total vote cast
immediately the last person votes. It also minimises violence usually associated
with manual voting.

Mr. Frimpong Kyeremeh told Space FM’s Kwadwo Poku that the University of Mines and
Technology and the College of Science of the KNUST, have both expressed interest in
using the system developed by Sunyani Polytechnic for their elections.
Mr. Frimpong added that his team would soon introduce the system to the various
District and Municipal Assemblies in the region to enable them use the system for
assembly elections.
Mr. Amponsah Manu, aspiring for the position of Finance Officer, expressed
satisfaction about the process but suggested that the SRC should contract the
Electoral Commission to guide students during voting.
He noted that when students are made to guide fellow students during the elections,
it gives room for suspicion.
Space FM gathered that the two top officials of the Brong-Ahafo regional Electoral
Commission were on campus when voting started and expressed satisfaction with the
process.